#miracletopia

Humanstuck AU where Ryu drives Tahzne to school in the morning and sings in the car all happy

Except one day she isn't happy

Tahz taps on her window to see what's wrong

She barely lifts her head and speaks in a grieving voice

You don't know how much time passes before you are separated from Tahzne's body. But it is long enough to know. He is gone. You had called for him, and he had not returned.

Stroud lifts you into his arms, carries you away from him. You feel a part of yourself detach. Your strength, your will. It stays with the corpse of your fallen knight.

You are brought to your moirail's room.The tears are gone from his cheeks, but not his voice. He brings you to the hygeineblock and asks you gently to clean yourself. The blood of your matesprit clings to your clothes and face; red mixed with purple on your cheeks. You do not move. You cannot. Your limbs are lifeless, not an ounce of strength left in them. Eventually Stroud takes pity and does it himself. Apologies fall on your deaf ears as he removes the purple staining your skin.

He redresses you and brings you to his bed, wrapping you tight in his warm embrace. Your ears fill with whispered promises. They're said slowly as if addressing a wiggler. He promises Tahzne will come back. That's how it works. He will be back soon.

He doesn't understand. Tahzne is dead. He cannot come back. Your invulnerable warrior has fallen.

Your mind is too loud. It races, flashing snippets of memories and broken lines of songs against your consciousness. Somewhere in the background a girl is sobbing brokenly. It is only when your throat begins to burn that you realize it is you.

Each second feels like hours. There is too much pain, pain you barely understand. Loss and grief tears at you. It is strange and overwhelming and it hurts too much. You want it to stop.

With a shadow of your strength you try to move. You pull away from Stroud, reaching, reaching for empty air. You topple over the side of the bed and your body hits the ground. Hands and knees lift your aching torso. Desperately your eyes search the room. Looking for something, anything. You spot the window - the air will clear your head. A desperate crawl to reach escape ensues.

Hands grab you, arms wrap around you and hold you back. You struggle weakly. Your moirail's voice is in your ear again, begging you to stop. You don't understand. You need to get away, you need to break free from this haze of pain.

He is begging you not to. He sounds scared. He is worried that you'll fall, or, that is what he says.

A part of you wonders if you would let yourself fall.

You stop struggling.

After seconds, minutes, hours. A knock comes at the door. Stroud lifts you once again and brings you back to the bed. You are lain down and he asks you to stay there. It sounds a little desperate. You don't feel like moving again.

The door opens and Camena enters. She comes to you. Her cheeks are green with tears. She looks miserable, sad, scared... it is familiar. Almost automatically you push yourself to sit up and motion for her to come beside you. She sits and you put an arm around her. Your will to calm warms itself and begins to soothe your friend's mind. Immediately she protests. She nearly begs you to stop; it's not right, you shouldn't be concerned about me. You shush her.

Eventually she collapses against you and sobs. You hold her and pet her hair as you have so many times before. You bring back your voice to repeat the words you have lived by.

"everything will be alright"

It only seems to make her cry harder. You think you see Stroud crying again, too.

The scene brings a feeble, meaningless smile to your lips. This is how things are supposed to be.

You sit and comfort Camena as if she is the one who has just lost everything.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The three of you go to bed there, together, in Stroud's room. They sleep. You do not. Your mind remains awake. The memories and songs and feelings fill the dark calm until they blend and become static; white noise muddling your mind.

In the early hours of the morning you see the sun peek through Stroud's window. The door opens. In the dim dawn light you see a familiar corpse approach. It is dressed differently, in fancy yellow attire. A song floats to the front of your mind which brings a humorless laugh.

The figure reaches out and strokes your cheek softly. "Ryuken..."

The words in your head are almost comical. You whisper, your voice hoarse. "its good to see you, i missed you last night...."

The fallen warrior tries to quiet you, gently brushing his thumb against your lips. But an almost manic giggle escapes, along with the next few words "thats such a lovely color.... it goes with your eyes...."

The next lines are lost in a mumble, swallowed by the broken calm as he lifts you from the bed. He cradles you to his chest. He is almost as warm as before. He almost smells the same.

Almost.

"this all seems so easy but theres choices to make...."

He hushes you again and you quiet. The song fades back into white noise.