Mike had always known his real purpose.
Fight every sorcerer in the world, so that his Will could breathe without hacking up and coughing like a dying flower deprived of sunlight. Battle every monster to get their bile or bane or claw or whatever it was that their resident mage and Will's twin sister, Jane, said might cure Will. Retrieve every cursed artifact that Eddie said might hold the powers to free Will.
Nothing worked. Everything that Jane brewed and stirred and concocted only filled the chamber with fumes and held no effect. Every story Dustin tried to dredge up from the depths of his knowledge and all the libraries he could throw himself into was pointless. Nothing made Will's lungs work again. Nothing made his crush best friend breathe clearly again.
"Will! I got the stupid bone powder from the North that Max said might be useful-" Mike panted, climbing down into their lair. Most of the others were out at this hour, gathering resources or trying to find out more. Mike was dead exhausted considering that climbing down the northern mountains for a week straight had been the most shoulder-destroying experience of his life.
It was all worth it for Will, though.
If only Will had been really alive any longer.
Mike's heart plummeted right to his toes, the pouch of bone powder that he'd wrestled out of a zombie's hands suddenly falling to the ground as the palladin ran to the bed.
Will looked weak. Tired. Exhausted. Eye bags so deep that Mike could see his eye sockets. Cheeks so gaunt that one could've called him a sickly Victorian child. He wasn't far from the fate that usually met sickly Victorian children anyway.
"Hey Mike," the sorcerer breathed shakily, breath sounding like it was coming from miles away as his hand raised to grip Mike's. Not many spells had left his fingers recently, and his ability to entwine his fingers with Mike's was only a showcase of how weak he'd grown.
"Will! Will, just hold on, I'll get Max, she said the bone powder might strengthen you, Will, oh god, stay awake, stay awake, stay strong, stay with me!" Mike hissed urgently, kneeling next to Will's bed. His armour hit the mahogany roughly as he leaned over his boyfriend best friend and pulled him up. Will's head hung limply on the palladin's shoulder, making Mike's entire body shake.
Mike couldn't let his husband best friend die like this.
"Mike," Will smiled, brown eyes gazing fondly at his friend's panicked ones, his skeletal hand brushing the dark curls from the taller boy's forehead, "You'll always be my palladin, right? We'll go crazy together. You and me."
"Will, no," Mike's whole frame choked on a sob, his metal plates cold against Will's thin robes as he pulled Will closer to him, forehead almost against his. He could feel every pulse of Will's failing breath, the curse too strong, too unbreakable, too powerful, too-
Mike was not going to lose Will.
He had already lost enough things in his world.
He was not going to let the love of his life be one of those things.
Without thinking twice, without hesitating, because what was Philip without his Sleeping Beauty to save?, Mike leaned down and kissed Will. A soft kiss tasting of salty tears and a palladin's desperation.
And when he pulled back, it was as if he pulled the curse away from Will with him.
Colour and flesh returned to the sorcerer's face so fast that it was like watched post mortem in reverse. Will's eyes were so wide that Mike could lean in and count every blood vessel if he wanted. His lungs were working alright considering that he was breathless, panting, and very much in shock.
"Did-Did you just kiss me?" Will breathed, clutching the top of Mike's breast plate.
The dark haired palladin swallowed, throat bobbing dangerously close to Will's fingers as he glanced down. "Yeah. Yeah, I think I did."
"It cured me. You cured me. Mike, you fixed me!" Will gasped, eyes still wide. His robes clung to his rapidly flushing skin, as if life was being infused in him by the very second.
"I kinda had to, didn't I? I love you," Mike smiled, letting Will pull his face down into another relieved kiss. He was allowed to enjoy the moment, the moment of realisation that his crush liked him back, that Will was kissing him, that Will was okay, that Will was fine, that Will was alive.
Mike could enjoy the moment for now and ignore the small ache that had already begun to burn at the bottom of his lungs.
Curses couldn't be broken, after all.
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