no crying until the end

“Boss cat…” he repeated quietly, amused at the image that unfurled in his head. That did sound remotely useful. If there was anything else attention-catching about the Boss Cat, it could explain what gave it authority over the average radiocat. “I understand.”

The question about his shoulder-rider wasn’t unusual, so he had an answer at the ready. “He’s a lizard.” One inebriated human had decided in advance what it was, and that was the decision. Dune expected that would make the most sense to the rest of them. At least, he wasn’t going to assume the metal arm meant not human.

“He’s been with me for a few years now. How long have you been spending your time with the cats? You seem to understand what they want very well.” Despite genuinely turning half of his attention on scanning the radiocats wandering around or perched in place, he could still think well enough to find it odd.

“May I ask your name?”

“...Really.” Claus scrutinized the lizard. He was very much an “animal person”, and something about that lizard was just...weird. Claus greeted it telepathically, but received no response. Maybe it was the strong, silent type.

“Never seen anything like that thing on his shoulder before!” chirped the radiocat. Claus was glad he wasn’t the only one finding it odd.

“...I’ve been with them for a few weeks.” Since he got here, really. He’d rather doze in a quiet place with a bunch of cats, than go to an apartment with a bunch of strangers. The city in general made his skin crawl...animals made it just tolerable.

He deliberated for a while on the name. Claus pretended like he was deeply interested in examining the dark alleys and creaking machinery around them, before he finally responded with a grumbled:

Lotus stared at the map too, looking at the part Claus was talking about.

“I could go to the Bamboo Forest, but everyone already knows they’d find me there,” the spirit spoke playfully, “…so it’s not very secret! But nobody would know to look here, huh? I don’t know if anyone else even knows about it.”

You know… just in case of a zombie apocalypse. Or even more likely, in case he ever wanted to isolate himself. You never know.

“Maybe I could find some furniture to put in there or something, if it’s suitable enough. It’ll be fun! Anyway… I can fly us over there. If you don’t mind?”

Fly them over?

Claus gave him a strange look, wondering how he was going to do just that. He himself used to be capable of flight, but when he got here, his jetpack had been missing...leaving that uncomfortable stiffness on his back where it usually “plugged” in. Ugh. He didn’t like to think about it; at least his jacket hid it.

 “Omelettes it is then. Perhaps I make one that would sooth you. You my dear boy, seem to be rather troubled when I asked.” Words could not express how sharp Sevastien is with other people. But most people tend to expect erunes to be a bit ditzy as they get older. Not him. 

  Claus’s words eased him just a bit– but only a little. He wasn’t sure what this city was… and he wasn’t even sure how they had gotten here. Maybe it was a subtle fear that he’d lose his brother again, after all– he had watched Claus die in his arms before. Such memories would forever be seared into his mind but he supposed there was nothing he could do about it now… Right now, his brother was somehow alive. For that, he was grateful.

                          ‘ Well… you better promise then, or I’ll get angry...! ’

  Such words were spoken with a slight tone of teasing in his voice. There was no way he could really get mad at Claus, after all– such a miracle should be treated like every day was his last… for he did not know how long this tiny miracle would last. Though he was surprised it had already been a few weeks for the other, he wondered how long he would be here… Lucas was still rather shaken but he managed a smile.

  ‘ Another Adventure…? Heh, Perhaps it is, but this place is so much different from Tazmilly– I think it’d be the biggest one yet…! ’

  It was true though, he was pretty tired. But he didn’t want to show that in front of Claus, not in front of anyone. He had come so far, and he tried his best even when everything felt lost– not because he necessarily wanted to but because he had nothing to lose. He wondered if it was really ok to relax here… after all, the thought of everyone back home, he wondered if they were doing alright.

  ‘ I guess you’re right, there’s no use crying over spilled milk– though I’m still worried about everyone back home, I wonder how Dad is doing… ’

“Hey...”

The mention of their father made Claus pause, his joviality slipping away.

“...Lucas. What happened to you and Dad after I...after I went with Mom.”

The words brought forth a resounding silence, deafening in its severity, crushing in is weight. Claus didn’t much enjoy thinking back on any of his memories as the “Masked Man”; especially not anything to do with the Needles. The connection to the Dragon was impossible to describe, in that moment--as if he’d become bound to the earth itself, briefly filled with power, feeling every living being left on the planet.

  A slight relief washed over him as he gave a soft sniff– tears still on the edges of his eyes but they had stopped for the moment. He didn’t really understand how such a place could exist, only Porky had ever made something this urban and massive… but he supposed perhaps Claus was right– after all… no, he didn’t want to think about it. Everything was just so confusing. 

                                  ‘ ...I see... it eases me a bit to know that. ’

  Lucas couldn’t keep his gaze on Claus when he said that name, King P. To be honest, Lucas barely liked saying the name Porky alone. The things he had done to Tazmily village, how he hurt the Dragos , and what he did to their mother and Claus– he couldn’t even begin to fathom how someone could be so heartless to other people. Someone like wasn’t a king, his hand balled into a fist as he tried to keep his composure, giving a soft smile. 

  ‘ All kinds of people…? To be honest, I just got here.. so I’m not really sure how to handle all this… ’

  But he knew he had to be brave, for everyone back home and for himself– the world would never stop spinning because of his losses, and he knew there was better things to do than mope. If … he was really given a chance to see his brother again, then… he didn’t want to spend it crying like he did back when they were younger– becoming a sniffling mess if he scraped is knee. He wouldn’t allow those experiences to go to waste. Letting out a soft chuckle that tried to mask his sadness, he spoke–

  ‘ …Heh. You kinda sound like you did when we were younger just now, but I don’t want to lose you again… so I’ll have to be strong too. ’

Claus managed a genuine smile.

“You’re not going to lose me again. That’s a promise.”

Hearing that he sounded a bit like his old self really bolstered Claus’s spirits. He folded his arms, his eyes brightening, showing more life than scarcely constrained sorrow and pain.

In fact...this was the happiest he’d felt in a long time! The sheer...unfamiliarity of it all made Claus’s chest hurt, but it was a pain he’d welcome any day.

“I only got here a couple of weeks ago...and it’s not like I know much, but...I guess it’s not all bad here. We can look at it as another adventure. I guess?Though you’re probably as tired of them as I am.”

That last bit betrayed the exhaustion dragging at Claus’s mind, but he shoved it down, focusing on how much seeing Lucas really here revived him. It was unfortunate his brother had to deal with another crazy event, but...he’d be lying if he said he still wasn’t happy to see him.

  It felt comforting to feel his brother’s embrace. It wasn’t something he was even entirely used to– after all, Claus had never been one to be so sentimental his fingers gripping onto the other’s clothes as if he might disappear. After all, his family had already slipped away, the bitter pain that wrung his heart so. Yet even so, he couldn’t be angry or bitter, only sadness and pain filled his heart with grief as he felt the other pull back a little. 

  His arms dropped back to his side as he tried to look at his brother clearly through the tears that wouldn’t stop trickling down his face. He knew he shouldn’t be crying, yet they wouldn’t stop– holding back so much all this time was hard, being stripped from his home to a place that reminded him of the horrible person that destroyed his family put him in a state of unease. 

  A hand lifted to his face to wipe his tears away. Though he didn’t like the sound of how Claus had addressed Porky, it wasn’t as if he didn’t understand. Claus recognized him, and that was a miracle in itself. It had been 3 years since he last saw his brother before that moment, the faint of breath and the static from the lightning that Claus had been struck with as he said his final words. 

     ‘ …I-I’m sorry, I know I …shouldn’t be crying at a time like this… but… ’

  He somehow managed to choke out the words that suffocated him, trying to hold them back as the memories of their final battle rushed through his memory. A hand moved to his chest where his franklin badge would have been, but now was gone. If Claus remembered him.. then there was nothing to worry about. If Porky was gone, then … there was nothing to fret. 

    ‘ …This place… reminds me of New Pork City, is he really gone…? ’

  Anything was possible in this city… he wasn’t sure what that meant, he had only just got here after all… with everything being new and foreign to him he found the courage to hold back his tears, the last of them still clinging to his chin as he looked down at his feet. 

  ‘ …I don’t even know how I got here… Everything just … reminds me of that  place, but… if you’re here, maybe it’ll be ok… ’

Oh.

Yeah, it was an awful lot like New Pork City. He’d thought the same thing when he first woke up here, dazed and sluggish and still smelling the scents of lightning and sunflowers.  No rest for the wicked, just yet. No going back to Mom so soon...

Claus shook his head. Get it together! Lucas was a sniffling mess! He was...better, a bit better, if only because he could barely cry, something rigid inside of him telling him to press on, that he had something to do--and this time, Claus would decide his own mission.

Claus took his metal hand off of Lucas’s shoulder, leaving his other hand there as he rubbed the back of his neck, pushing past the ruff of his jacket. “Look...as far as I know, he’s not here. And good riddance, right? I don’t even think this has anything to do with the Needles.”

“It’s all just...big, and weird, like how King P came from somewhere. This city is just...here, pulling in all kinds of people, and--look, I don’t know either! It’s just how it is!”

Claus took one of Lucas’s hands, squeezing it. When faced with grief, Claus took action.

  Was he just imagining things…? Certainly… being taken to such a strange place had just put stress on his mind– he was already a mess, how couldn’t he be after everything that had happened…? He didn’t know what to believe, certainly this wasn’t what he had expected when he arrived here. He was just homesick, and now he was seeing ghosts. Taking a step back as he trembled slightly. His body trembling softly, tears already falling. 

  There was no way Claus could be alive, he had died in his arms. There was no way… it was impossible… A soft hiccup escaped  him as he heard his name being called out again. It was chilling, unnerving he kept telling himself that this was just from the stress until he felt the other’s hand on his shoulder. 

 It wasn’t some hallucination, or maybe it was. He had more than his fair share of them, he knew that for sure. If there was one thing for sure, he wanted to believe it was real. He was exhausted, tired– he missed his family so much, that had been ripped apart years ago. He missed those days where they played with the Drago’s in peace, when their mother made them omelettes like she always did. 

       It was all a distant dream now, as he was pulled into the nightmare that came in the three years afterward. 

  His thoughts were pulled away from that as he was grasped into a hug, something that grounded him back into the reality he was living. He didn’t , couldn’t understand how in the world something like this could happen. Claus… had died, yet here he was– pulling him into such an embrace. He couldn’t help but shakily wrap his own around the other, his eyes becoming red from tears.

   ‘ …It’s not a dream… is it? This isn’t some trick of the mind, it’s really you right…? ’

Claus held him as close as he could. Lucas’s familiar warmth, his heartbeat--it was all so dear to him. It’d be a lie to say he just now realized how much he missed him. He knew. He knew.

Radiocats weaved through their legs, purring, as Claus blinked back the tears that only seemed to want to sluggishly form in one of his eyes. He was the older twin. The big brother. The city had given him some time to...adjust. He could--

“I-It’s me. It’s me for real. No...No King P, or...or anything.”

He squeezed him one more time, willing himself to stop trembling, stop crying. Claus pulled back abruptly, placing both his hands on Lucas’s shoulders.

He could be--

“C-C’mon. Crying again?” He tried to give a smile that he could barely remember, backlit by happier days of playing with Dragos and molecrickets. He wanted to push all those memories of the Masked Man from Lucas’s head...and his own.

“Anything’s possible in this city.”

Claus was barely putting any pressure with his robotic hand, as if afraid to clasp down. Shoulders both stiff and shaking, somehow, but, but he--

He could be the brave big brother again. For him.

  It was strange, to be in a city. Somehow it almost reminded him of New Pork City– though he tried not to think about it too much… after all, he had seen Porky go into that capsule with his own two eyes… It was just like Dr. Andonuts had said, so he shouldn’t worry so much. Yet he still felt unease rise in his stomach, Dad nor Boney were anywhere in sight, nor Kumatora or Duster. Waking up in somewhere who knows how far away from home…

  Perhaps it was because his comfort in animals that drew him to these… strange cats. They almost reminded him of the chimeras that Porky had changed the animals on the island to… but they seemed completely robotic. It was almost irritating how much it reminded him of a place he disliked, even the memories were still rather fresh.

  Yet he still followed them, he supposed because there was nothing else better to do. He had been shown his new living space… yet he didn’t feel a lot of comfort in it. A lonely gaze spread across his features as he knelt down near one of them. 

                                                       ‘ …I wonder… ’

  He said softly to himself, before hearing a familiar voice near him. He felt his blood run cold, his breath hitching softly as he felt almost a sense of dread to look up. No, it couldn’t be– such a voice… Softly raising his head to look at the face of his twin, Claus. The very same one that had died in his arms. Just looking at him… was painful, the feelings that overwhelmed him at the time that he had pushed away started to lump in his throat, slowly standing up to stand face to face. 

  What should he say? Everything was still fresh in his mind, seeing his brother alive and breathing right before him made his fingers tremble softly as tears threatened his eyes. There was so much he had wanted to say, ever since that day he disappeared. He wasn’t even able to get a word in before he took his last breath back then, overwhelmed with emotion and grief– he said in a weak voice.

                                             ‘ ….It’s…It’s really you, Claus…. ’

Lucas.

Claus felt his throat clench.

Lucas.

Memories flickered like fitful lights in his mind, bringing flashes of their mother, of sunflowers, of lightning arcing toward him, reflected from an old badge on his brother’s chest.

Lucas.

It was really...

He wanted to cry, but for some reason, nothing happened. Maybe Porky had ripped that out of him too, removed such a pointless function from his obedient little puppet. Or perhaps he was simply too shellshocked to do much more than shuffle a step forward, painfully conscious of his metal hand and the steel grafted onto his bones, as if Lucas could see it all.

The radiocats circled anxiously. Claus lifted his hand, made a halfhearted effort to tell them everything was fine. The words barely emerged, but they got the message.

“L-Lucas...” He reached out--with his “good” hand--touching his brother’s shoulder, and yes, he was warm and real and here and alive.

For a long moment he stood there, frozen, like a machine that just malfunctioned; but then he grabbed him into a fierce hug, and oh--

Something seemed weird. Off, maybe.

Oh… his arm—

Lotus quickly looked away, smiling sadly at the question.

“No, coming here was the first time I’ve ever really… had the chance to enjoy the beach. But now I can say that I do in fact like it. I lived in a really deep forest for most of my life.” With those words, he found himself yearning for a true forest; the bamboo area was fine and all, but you couldn’t really call it deep.

No, what the spirit missed was a forest of abysmal size, with trees so large that they blotted out the sun with the only light coming from the woods’ own life of crystal and gleaming plants.

“…I came here for a reason, though.” Lotus held out a map, which appeared to detail the nearby area. “Somebody gave me this a while back, and… there’s a cave somewhere by the shore. It’d make a great secret base! I don’t mind you knowing about it if you help me look.”

“...A secret base...?”

Claus was tempted to ask “What for?” but perhaps it didn’t matter. Maybe he just wanted some privacy, somewhere safe to be when things inevitably got insane. Claus had heard about the sudden, bizarre events that could occur in this place.

“I can help. I guess. Give me the map.”

He took it from the boy--again, more brusque than he intended--scrutinizing it.

“Why not go hide in the woods, if that’s what you’re used to?” He turned it all around, upside down, side to side, trying to tap into whatever unfortunate part of his brain actually knew stuff like military protocol, terrain mapping, and the like.

There was much to be done before he could fashion a feast fit for a child of starving nature. For once there was little time to choose what to cook. What to use among other things and there were so much ingredients to buy now that he decided to make something for the child. its going to get busy for the next few hours. 

 “I will need to know allergies and favorites, after all it would be a waste if i cook whatever you dislike now would it. “

...Uh.

Claus, for an uncomfortable instant, had a hard time remembering what he used to like to eat. A look of notable discomfort settled upon his face before he managed to drag up the mental chest of childhood memories, dust off the years of disuse, and drag out the contents.