#watofies

He’d been sticking to her side since the moment they’d entered the elevator chamber and been sent plummeting down through the floor— it was a habit that he’d picked up some time after Wato had returned from the End Barrens, catatonic and just barely holding it together at the sight of him. Back in those first few months post-End Barrens, Wato had latched onto him (and Ken, but Ken wasn’t here right now— and honestly, what a shame, because they could definitely break all three of them out) at any given opportunity. 

She had managed to outgrow that phase, mostly, but Wifies still stuck close by, just in case she ever felt like she needed his support.

Now, looping around one of the parking lot pillars for the third time, Wato couldn’t help but feel that immense gratefulness she’d felt during those hundred days for her beacon of hope rushing right back to her as she watched him cheer, opening a chest. 

“I found a tape,” Wifies waved it at her, beaming giddily as he jogged back over to her. Wato had seen him make this expression dozens of times before, sure, but every time it happens she only feels more endeared. “My first contribution to the team!” 

“One step closer to leaving,” Wato agreed readily, linking their arms together as Wifies deposited the tape into his bag. She was just barely able to stop herself from saying you’ve done enough already, just being here is enough, because it was true. They did need to get out. But Wifies could have been doing nothing at all, and Wato would still appreciate every second he stuck to her, the warmth of his hand in her own tethering her to the ground they stood on.

“Should we make our way back to the group?” Wifies asked as they left the underground parking lot, both taking another moment to recheck their surroundings. “I mean, if we can find them.”

“I think Vixios and Baablu… no, no, that’s not right, Vix and Swayle are together right now. Baablu is probably off exploring somewhere on his own,” Wato thought out loud. 

She couldn’t actually remember where the rest of their little ragtag rescue team were— and honestly, with Wifies next to her, she didn’t really care all that much about where the rest of them had gone. 

It felt a little like her time in the End Barrens again, when all she wanted was for someone to stay. Anyone, to stay. 

Here, though, with her Wifies by her side, the brush of his shoulder against her arm and the solid, real presence of his hand in hers, Wato only saw the need to keep him close.

“Do you want to go back to the, uh, hotel level?” Wato asked, in lieu of a response from Wifies. She couldn’t help but fill the silence between them whenever she could— that was another bad habit she’d picked up from End Barrens. If Wifies minded it, though, he hadn't yet said anything. “We can rest for a bit while the others continue collecting. Or, you know, we can try exploring some more, if that’s what you want.”

Wifies scrunched up his face slightly as he thought about it, shaking his head after just a moment’s hesitation. “I mean, the Complex is a huge place, so we’re probably gonna be stuck here for a while trying to get those tapes. You should try and get some rest while there’s no monsters trying to chase us around.”

The blatant concern on his face made Wato feel a little warm, like standing in a warm ray of sunlight instead of underneath the bright fluorescent lights of the lot’s ceiling. 

“Yeah, okay. That sounds good.”

As she nears, he seems to take notice of where exactly he is. He looks around, disoriented, before his eyes land on Wato, and then, as if a switch were flipped, Wifies’s face breaks out into a small, sweet smile, one that Wato feels confident in saying is solely reserved for her and Ken. Well— right here, right now, it’s only for her. 

After all, Ken didn’t stay long enough for Wifies to show up, did they? 

The thought makes something in her chest hurt a little, and she tries to focus back on Wifies himself. She’s both glad to see him and nauseous at the sight of him. 

Why is he here? What— had something happened? Had Ken told him to come visit? No, there was no way— they would never allow Wifies to put himself in the path of danger, and though there was no true ‘danger’ here, the loneliness was suffocating, and the amount of hard labour Wato had made herself do to stay sane wasn’t suitable for Wifies, his hands only having ever known the intricacies of an escape room Wato had made for him.

He’s here again. In a place you’ve made for him.

“Wato!” Wifies calls, making her ear twitch and snapping Wato out of her own spiraling thoughts. It brings a smile to her face, how familiar it is. How good Wifies is at bringing her— and Ken, occasionally— back to themselves when they stray a little far from their minds. Maybe— maybe, if she plays her cards right, Wato can keep him here, and keep him safe, and escape with him in tow. She can show Ken that this wasn’t a hopeless expedition, that it wasn’t all for nothing, and that in the end, it was Wato who’d won their wordless bet.

A few blocks away from her now, Wifies steps off the small grass platform that had somehow been formed at spawn— probably a product of the endermen picking up all of Wato’s fucking dirt all the time— to walk toward her, stopping just a block away. “Ah— you look…”

“Like shit, probably,” she coughs, trying to play it off as she widens the distance between them just slightly. Wifies smiles hesitantly, though he doesn’t make any move to get closer.

It isn’t— it’s not him. Just for the record. It would never be Wifies who made her uncomfortable.

 Wato just— she just doesn’t want Wifies to touch her. She’s— she’s a bit afraid, she thinks, that she’ll make him dirty in turn. After all, she’s just spent some… fifty, sixty something days piling dirt and grass with her bare hands. The amount of grime underneath her nailbeds could probably host a small colony of bacteria at the rate she’s going. It probably already is.

And Wifies, who’s standing in front of her now, is so… he’s so different. From all of this. From her.

Untouched by the coldness and emptiness of the End Barrens, he’s warm now— more alive than he had been when she’d first met him properly, with Ken beside the both of them— in a way that Wato cannot be. Maybe will never be, if she can’t find a way to access the Nether before these hundred days are up. Wato is an empty vessel, and Wifies is one newly filled to the brim, and she can’t bear the thought of forcing him to give up his own being to help her.

So she just shrugs. “I’ve… spent a lot of time here, on my own. It’s— well, dirty. I guess. Easier for only one of us to have to take a deep-cleaning shower when we get out, right?” 

Wifies’s eyes soften, as if he understands what Wato isn’t saying. “Makes sense. So… with all the time you’ve spent here, mind showing me around the place a bit?”

Wato tries not to get self-conscious of the way her tail immediately pricks up when he asks, curling it behind her back in a show of embarrassment when Wifies smiles gently. “Yeah! Yeah. I can… I’ll do that. Just— don’t. Uh. Get lost or anything. Stay… stay by my side, okay?”

“Of course,” Wifies says as his arm stutters in an aborted motion to grab Wato’s hand. “I… can do that.”

“Okay. Okay. Then— first things first, I should show you the watchtowers.”

And as they walk in the dim light of the setting sun, she doesn’t yet notice how his arm brushes past her with no contact, or how his image grows hazier when they approach water. Because when she does… that’s when she’ll have to accept it.

Even he left in the end. What more do you have left, but your own stubborn need to finish this?

She doesn’t answer.

Still, for the time being— Wifies is here. And Wato—