What abt Musrio and Drayco drabble?? On a day one of em feels bad?
Sure, have some foreshadowing while we're at it!
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Drayco was rudely startled out of sleep as the chest they were laying on suddenly lurched upwards. They tumbled over with a startled noise, disoriented, their breathing apparatus knocked aside.
Sitting up, they adjusted the mask, squinting in the dark at the figure beside them.
"Mushy?" They questioned, rubbing their eyes and pushing their hair out of their face.
Musrio had his face buried in his hands, claws fisting in his hair. He was trembling, his breathing ragged in his throat.
Drayco extended a hand about to touch his shoulder, before they hesitated.
"Hey, Mush. Musrio. Can you hear me?"
The rustblood let out a strangled whine, his grip on his hair tightening. Drayco would usually ask before touching, but this time they reached up, carefully and gently coaxing Musrio's fingers open.
"Hey, babe, you're gonna hurt yourself. Stop." They said softly. Musrio's fingers tried to tighten again, but Drayco pulled their hands out.
So instead, the rustblood pulled his knees up to his chest, his hand like a vice around Drayco's.
The bronzeblood put a hand on his shoulder, a forewarning before they pulled Musrio against their side and wrapped their arms around him.
"Another nightmare?" They asked softly, shifting around Musrio's large horns to get comfortable.
The rustblood made a noise that vaguely resembled a yes, pulling his hands in to cover his face.
"What was it this time?"
"Mngh."
"You dying?" Drayco guessed.
"..." No answer.
"Me dying?"
"..."
"Our death day?"
"..."
"Was it about the past at all?"
"..."
"The future, then?"
"Ribbit."
"Ah." They sighed softly, gently taking one of Musrio's hands and guiding it to the amulet around his neck. He seized it, squeezing the skull pendant tightly. "Will you tell me about what's been bothering you, now?"
"... I can't." Musrio finally rasped, "I..." He swallowed and took sever breaths, trying to gather himself, "I don't want to put... these ideas in your thinkpan, and I... I don't even know if they're what the future holds. Ribbit."
"Even so... It's been bothering you ever since we met Hierophant. Is it about the chosen child?"
"No, it's..." he groaned, grinding the palm of his free hand into his eye, "I can't tell you. Ribbit, I'm sorry, I can't-" He went to grab his hair again, and Drayco stopped him.
"Okay, okay. Breathe, mushy." They soothed, massaging the necromancer's hands between their own. "Want to tell me about your dream instead, then? What happened?"
Musrio was quiet for a long moment, before he took a shaky breath and flopped back onto his back, staring up at the ceiling. Drayco slowly laid back down, too, reaching over and taking his hand.
That was a familiar position, they thought; lying side by side with Musrio, their hands clasped together?
"... This is how we died." Musrio said their thoughts for them.
"Yeah. Cathartic, ain't it?"
The rustblood snorted. "No."
"Tell me about your dream, then." Drayco prompted.
The only sounds for a long while were the wind outside, and the low hum of Drayco's recupercoon. They simply waited.
"We... We were in space." Musrio began, "Standing on nothing. It was dark, all the stars were dying. It was you, me, Maddel, and Bohwie. Everyone else was there, but they weren't, at the same time. Ribbit. Like... Like my companions."
Drayco turned their head in time to see Musrio reach for the darkness beside the bed with his free hand. For a moment, the shadows seemed to come together to form a pair of clawed hands, gently cupping the necromancer's, before they vanished.
"Okay?" Drayco prompted, unfazed.
"Oliver and I started arguing, before Neviserrath appeared above us. I don't... Ribbit, that's what woke me up."
"I see." Drayco said softly. They hesitated, before they rolled over, propping themself up on their arms to hover over Musrio. "What did Neviserrath say?"
Musrio blinked up at them, before he looked away. "... I can't tell you."
Drayco couldn't help it, they collapsed onto Musrio's chest with a frustrated groan.
"Musrio, babe, come on. I'm your mate, you're supposed to talk about these things with me."
"I couldn't even tell a morail this stuff, Dee, this isn't about quadrants." Musrio insisted, raising his head.
Drayco raised their head, resting their chin on the rustblood's chest and adjusting their mask. "Okay? Quadrants aside, what if it really was Neviserrath?"
Musrio was already shaking his head. "It wasn't. It didn't feel like it."
"Does that mean it's come to you in your dreams before?"
Musrio nodded, staring up at the ceiling still. One hand came up to card through Drayco's hair, and the bronzeblood saw him swallow.
"When I couldn't figure out which ancestor I needed next, yeah. It'd come and point me in the right direction. Or sometimes it would borrow my body. Ribbit."
""Borrow your body?"" Drayco tipped their head into his hand.
"... Sometimes... I wake up in places I didn't fall asleep in. I've woken up standing in the middle of the street. I woke up on the Warshark when I went to revive the Deepbite. I hadn't known where the ship was, but Neviserrath walked my corpse right to it. Ribbit."
Drayco swallowed, having to repress a shudder. "That's horrible."
"Yeah." Musrio closed his eyes for a moment, and Drayco felt his chest rise as the necromancer took a deep breath. "But this wasn't like that. I'm sure it was just a dream." He opened his eyes, a scowl deepening on his brow, "Just an uncomfortably vivid dream that had to bring up my fears. Ribbit."
"Nothing scares you, Mushy." Drayco scoffed.
Musrio rumbled. "You know that's not true. I'm scared of everything."
"You've faced down an eldritch deity, have gone face to face with trolls like the Hounding-" They reached up, hand slipping under Musrio's sweater to press at the scar above his blood-pumper. Musrio shivered at their touch, and Drayco felt the beat of his dead thump-organ against their fingers, "and willingly threw yourself at Forsaken to take a bullet for me, Mush."
They pushed themself up again, their hand staying where it was as they hovered over the small rustblood. "You're the bravest troll I've ever met, dead or alive." They continued, "I know you're scared, because I'm fucking terrified. But you're the one who has sucked it up, buckled down, and done what needed to be done."
Musrio's face and ears were getting redder and redder with every word, and Drayco felt his breathing hitch under their hand. They reached up and tugged their own pendant out of their shirt, the red crystal with Musrio's sign suspended in the stone. Musrio's eyes locked onto it, watching it sway.
"However this ends, Mush, I'm gonna be right there beside you. Even if we lose, we died together before and we'll do it again."
Musrio blinked at them, before he actually laughed.
Oh... Breathing was already difficult for Drayco, but hearing their mate's chuckle made them stop entirely. When was the last time they'd heard-?
"Was that your idea of a rallying speech?" Musrio asked, "A suicide pact? Ribbit?"
"Y- yeah?" They stammered.
Musrio only snorted, and Drayco couldn't help it.
They lurched down, intending to kiss him. Musrio caught their face in his hand mere centimeters before contact, though, brows furrowed.
Drayco froze, afraid they'd overstepped, but Musrio reached up and gently tugged their mask down.
"That was in the way." He murmured, his expression softening.
Drayco's lungs were full of fluid, but their blood-pumper was overflowing with crimson feelings as they leaned down and smashed their lips into his.
Musrio's arms came up to encircle their neck, and Drayco dug their claws into the mattress, the fingers still on Musrio's chest twitching.
Even when they were struggling to inhale, Drayco was reluctant to pull away. Musrio slid their mask back up for them when they did, though, and they took a shaky breath.
"I mean it, Musrio." They said once they caught their breath, "I'll be right there with you, to the very end."
Musrio gazed up at them, an unreadable expression in his black eyes, before his mask slipped off.
"To the very end, then."
