Chapter Text
Azure had always found love to be a beautiful thing. He found meaning in life through love; a reason to get out of bed in the morning, a reason to strive for self-betterment, a reason to keep going at all. Every time the world began to seem dark, the warm, adoring face of his lover would pull him back. The sneaky glances during sermons, the nights spent sneaking into each other’s bedrooms, escapades out into the flower fields where they braided each other’s hair and laughed until it was too dark to make out the details of each other’s faces.
How cruel, then, must the world have been—to send it all crashing down upon him eventually, and to not have so much as the decency to laugh as the illusion fell.
Something had been off about Two Time for a few weeks before it happened, but Azure thought little of it, having known them previously to have strange sorts of episodes. They seemed less willing to sneak about with him, less physically affectionate, distant and preoccupied at every turn. Sometimes they stared off into the distance as if seeing a ghost; when Azure attempted to pry, he was met with stubborn deflection. His concern grew by the day, but his resolve did not. Perhaps that is what spelled his downfall, or perhaps it was coming either way.
As he stood awaiting Two Time in the field of nightshade flowers a ways away from the Spawnist church, he nervously fidgeted with the sleeve of his cloak, staring down at the blossoms surrounding him with apprehension swirling in his gut. There had been a sudden turn of events that day: instead of avoiding a late-night rendezvous as Azure's lover had been eager to do lately, Two Time had approached Azure and practically demanded one. Azure was in no place to say no, considering he’d been asking for quality time with Two Time all the while, but something about this gave him a bad feeling, slow and insidious like a snake writhing in the flower stems. He hoped it was nothing, told himself it was an overactive imagination casting undue doubt upon his lover… but he couldn’t shake the feeling.
Azure jolted to awareness, departing from his thoughts, as he heard soft footsteps on the grass behind him. When he looked over his shoulder, he saw them. His lover. Their hands were clasped behind their back, and their eyes were closed almost as if in prayer, underscored by dark circles. It was hard to see in the low light of night, even with the presence of a lantern, but Azure could’ve sworn Two Time was shaking.
“...Hello, beautiful flower,” Azure greeted sweetly. He turned to face them fully, and took slow, deliberate steps forward, intending to meet them where they stood. “Something ails you, I know it. Pray, speak…”
Two Time remained unmoving, and Azure started to believe they hadn’t heard him. He opened his mouth to repeat himself, gentler this time…
He gasped and flinched back as Two Time’s eyes suddenly shot wide open, their pupils contracting to tiny pinpoints before locking onto him like a wild animal about to pounce. Shock took hold of his body like sealing ice; he found himself helpless, powerless to flee, even as Two Time lunged toward him. A glint of silver, shining in the moonlight, caught his eye just before—
Squelch.
The noise the dagger made as it was driven right between two of Azure’s ribs was terrible, wet and sickening as it pierced his chest cavity, skewered his lung on its dual blades. Then, Two Time gripped it with both hands and wrenched it, twisting it with enough force to tear a limb from a tree. A rib snapped. Azure let out a strangled, pitiful cry of agony at the flourish and promptly hit the ground like a sack of bricks, his vision swimming with dark splotches as crimson spilled from him. It slowly pooled on the ground around him, staining purple blossoms red.
The worst part? The stab had missed his heart. Nothing about this was going to be fast.
After twisting the dagger, Two Time released it, dropping to their knees next to Azure’s trembling form. Eyes still wide, they stared at him, as if in disbelief at the state of him. Azure could hardly stand to look at them, although in all fairness, he could hardly stand to move with the fiery pain radiating from his chest, searing through every nerve in his body. In his peripheral vision, he saw them squeeze their eyes shut tight and clasp their trembling hands together, splattered with blood. Tears ran down their sunken face. Azure only caught snippets of the prayer they uttered through the ringing in his ears.
“Oh, divine Spawn, see now the depth of my devotion to you… That I would give up that which is most precious to me second to you…”
Azure wheezed and sputtered as he tried and failed to take breaths. Blood welled up in his throat, pooled in his mouth, sprayed when he involuntarily coughed and convulsed. His head spun. He couldn’t breathe.
Why now? I have so much left to say, so much left to do with you…
The words had no way of reaching a mouth which was clogged with viscera.
Two Time’s eyes opened once more, glimmering with tears, and they set their gaze skyward, desperate and manic. “Do you hear me? I have done what you wanted! I have rid myself of this impurity—his blood is on my hands! Do you hear me??”
Azure followed their gaze, even the smallest movement of his eyes slow and labored. The night sky hung overhead, quiet and unresponsive.
Stars. So many stars. Azure had never noticed the sheer number of them before. There was so much out there that he had never noticed before.
The pain was ebbing away; everything was ebbing away. Azure could hardly feel his back against the ground anymore, or the blood tacking up onto his shirt. Faintly, as if observing it from afar rather than experiencing it, he felt Two Time’s cold, quaking hands grasp one of his own.
“Azure, can you still hear me? Are you there? Say something…”
Azure’s throat convulsed. No sound came out.
The last thing he saw was the stars. They flickered out, one by one, until the last one disappeared into the unending, unknowing cosmos, and Azure was left in the silence and the dark.
Death was cold. That was the first thing Azure had noticed.
The second thing he noticed was the unbearable quiet; no people talking, no birds chirping, no wind blowing. Not even the sound of white noise buzzing in his ears. Absolute silence. What better to amplify his stormy thoughts?
To say that he was floating would be somewhat inaccurate. He was suspended in sheer nothingness, formless and directionless. The world was gone, as was his body. All that was left was the consciousness, the soul.
All he could think about was Two Time. He wondered what they’d done after he was gone. Figured that they were praised as some sort of hero for making such a hefty sacrifice in the name of the Spawn. Wished that he’d been able to say something to them, before his heart stopped beating.
And now I will never get such a chance again.
Just as that notion occurred to him, Azure suddenly sensed something, some sort of foreign presence in the void of the afterlife. Having no eyes with which to see, Azure could not visualize this presence, but he could sense a message from it, invading his thoughts like some sort of psychic parasite.
You wish to see your Two Time again?
Azure hesitated before responding, a hesitation which, in this limbo, could have cost mere seconds or thousands of eons with Azure being none the wiser.
Can such a thing be?
Azure heard no noise, and yet seemed to be aware of laughter from the presence.
Anything can be if your desire is great enough. Do not answer; I know already what your answer will be.
As quickly as it had come, the presence in the void withdrew, leaving Azure with nothing but himself once more… except something had shifted. He no longer felt entirely featureless. The slightest hint of physical sensation was beginning to return to him, beginning at his still, unbeating heart and slowly drifting outward. Gradually, he felt arms, legs, hands, fingers, feet…
An anticipatory sort of feeling settled in Azure’s gut; he likened it to the awareness that one was about to awaken from a particularly lucid dream. Fleeting hope dashed across his consciousness, a passing wish that what had transpired had been nothing more than a nightmare. He clenched his fists, the sensation realer than it’d felt since that blade entered his chest. Whatever was happening, if Two Time would be there, he figured himself ready for it.
What a fool he was.