🐚 | mcyt oneshots (discontinued)

as sly as a fox [n]

this oneshot is so gross

pairing; sapnap/nick

prompt; sapnap's slow realization that dream is a bad person

title from; everything at once, lenka

tws; indecisive-ness, swearing (tell me if i forgot any oops)

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to nick, clay wasn't a bad person until recently. he'd convinced himself it was tommy's fault clay ended up like this, tommy's fault clay turned into the monster he is now. but, deep down, nick knows tommy had nothing to do with this, just one of clay's victims. nick ignored this knowledge, blaming a sixteen-year-old for how clay acted, when all it was the blond growing greedier for power over time.

even george tried to tell him. clay used to switch sides constantly, whispering false sayings in others' ears to create conflict. george saw this and, being the good friend he is, he tried to warn nick before he got hurt. nick ignored him, saying clay would never do that and that clay was such a good person. and he was, before... everything.

nick guesses he should've seen it coming. he'd known all the shit clay did. hell, the green-eyed man had told him his plans and nick still chose to ignore it and say clay wasn't a bad person. nick supposed it was because nick didn't want to lose someone else, didn't want to think of his best friend as a monster.

clay's laugh had disappeared months ago. that was the first sign, his genuine laugh never coming out again. it was replaced with something horrible, if there was a "laugh." clay never laughed anymore. when nick asked him about it, clay said it was because they had no more time for laughter anymore.

after that, the atmosphere around clay was dark and menacing, not the happy, carefree aura he used to have. every conversation was short, every smile cruel, every movement used to hurt something or someone. it hurt nick to watch someone he loved grow into the one thing clay had sworn to never become.

even after clay had gotten the discs, he still kept tormenting tommy. maybe it was tommy's fault he wouldn't stop trying to get those damned circles back, but all it did was add onto clay's inevitable demise. he was too blind to see it, but everything would go downhill at some point. every good or bad thing did.

all clay cared about was the discs. it was all he talked about to nick, nothing about traveling like he'd always wanted to do. only the discs now. if nick or george or luke tried to say something other than the discs clay changed the subject before they could even finish a sentence. it was scary, how much clay cared about the discs.

but why? why did clay do this to himself and the others around him?

nick thinks it was power. the second clay had any, he flipped. clay had so much power he didn't even need to do this. all the shit everyone went through, all the wars and fights and deaths, all for some fucking music? not even good music. tommy was the only one who kept trying to rebel against him, the only one who didn't listen to him. it made clay feel angry and weak when it really shouldn't have. tommy was just being tommy.

and now clay is locked away. his actions cost him everything, but maybe not nick. nick couldn't make up his mind on whether clay is a good or bad person. he knows clay is a bad person but doesn't want to believe it. he doesn't want to think of the perfect dream doing all of this. after all of those years, a teenager managed to change clay for the worse?

every day since clay has been gone, it's been raining. outside, it was pouring and thundering and dark. with nick, his mind is a storm worse than outside's. it's a constant battle with himself, a battle that nick is sure to lose if he doesn't figure it out soon.

the only way nick can think of to fix this is to go talk to clay himself, but is that a good idea so soon? is it a good idea to try to figure out something nick already knows the answer to? it's his pride or his friends. if nick keeps telling himself and others clay is a good person, he ends up alone. if nick decides clay is a bad person, he loses the friend he's had all these years. losing one person over many others? it's an easy decision.

but it isn't. it's not supposed to be easy, not supposed to be over so soon. the world wants nick to suffer through this one decision. the world doesn't give two shits about what happens to nick or clay or tommy or anyone. clay and the world must've been good friends, must've collaborated for all this to happen.

and it's driving nick insane. the decision is slowly eating away at his mentality. he's too aware that if he doesn't do anything soon everything will be over. others will give up on him and leave, clay will stop caring. but did he ever care? he never showed he cared about nick.

now, nick stands before the ruins of l'manburg. a small leather bag was set by his feet, damp from the downpour. a pile of glowing netherite armour sat in a pile, the azure flash of magic pulsing in the dark of the night. all his tools were strewn out across the lawn, glinting in the glow of bubbling lava sprouting from cracks into the craters.

the magma split between rocks and debris, filling every nook and cranny there was in the crater. nick flicked his wrist and the lava stopped. he nudged his armour into the lava, watching the pieces sink into the orange glow. nick did the same with his tools until you could no longer see any blue flashes illuminating the area.

he stood there for a few more seconds, basking in the familiar heat of lava. he'd finally made up his mind, chose clay or people who loved him. nick turned on his heel easily in the damp grass, picking up his bag as he walked, back onto the oak wood path, away from his past. he was leaving that damned country of death and destruction.