ᴀꜰᴛᴇʀʟɪꜰᴇ - ᴀɴ ᴇᴘɪᴄ ꜱᴍᴘ ꜰɪᴄ

II

Over time, the ringing lessened.

Never completely, never to the point where it was ignore-able, but it lessened. And it was bearable.

The sensitivity in his skin never went away, though. Neither did the headaches, no thanks to the ever so angry Schlatt that Charlie was stuck with. Charlie wasn't one to get angry easily, but Schlatt was really beginning to push his limits.

But he couldn't be too mad. Or, he wouldn't let himself be too mad. He's the one who tore everything apart after all. So Charlie stayed near the tree house that used to be his home. Or, what was left of it. He stayed there with the stake that the little copy of his head was stuck on. He would talk to it sometimes. About Schlatt, about Ted, about Swagger. And for the most part everything was okay.

Until Charlie tried to go back to the Palcove.

Charlie had finally decided he'd been in the remains of this sad little town long enough. He wanted to go back to his real home. So he had begun walking out of what was left of the entrance, not bothering to say a word to Schlatt, wherever he may have been.

He made his way through the rubble, hopping down onto the ground. He hadn't made it far from the remains of the town when a sharp, blinding pain shot throw his chest, stopping him in place. He yelped out in pain and sunk to his knees, grasping his chest tightly.

Schlatt must have felt it too based on his roar of pain. Charlie didn't care, focused only on the pain that had speared it's way into his chest earlier. He rubbed the spot it'd shot through when Schlatt found him kneeling on the ground, hunched over in pain.

"What was that?" He asked harshly.

Charlie simply ignored him, trying to get the pain to die down. Schlatt frowned at being ignored and grabbed Charlie by the arm, pulling him up by force. 

"I asked you what that was," Schlatt repeated. Charlie frowned at Schlatt and yanked his arm out of Schlatt.

"I think we're stuck together," Charlie said, the pain easing from his chest and eventually fading completely.

"Well what the hell were you doing leaving?" Schlatt crossed his arms and peered down at the male. Weeks ago, that stare would've broken him. He would've cowered back and agreed to whatever Schlatt wanted. But now...

"You're not my boss anymore, Schlatt. I can do as I please," Charlie replied, standing straighter. Even daring to look Schlatt in the eye.

Something flashed briefly in Schlatt's eyes and Charlie could've sworn it was something of pride. It was gone before Charlie could confirm and Schlatt's glare turned dangerous as he crouched down to Charlie's height.

"Oh yeah? Well the last time you 'did as you pleased' you blew up my home Charlie Slimecicle. I think I would do well not to let you keep doing as you please," Schlatt's voice had turned dangerously soft and Charlie was smart in looking a little unnerved.

"Well maybe if you weren't such an over bearing and horrible boss, I wouldn't have blown up Bungerberg," Charlie returned, crossing his arms to mimic Schlatt.

"Well you shouldn't have gone fucking psycho on us!" Schlatt fired back.

"Oh I'm the one who went psycho? Maybe if you weren't so insistent on working me to death and locking me away every day of the week, week after week, month after month, maybe I wouldn't have "gone psycho". Maybe if you," Charlie jabbed his finger at Schlatt's chest, "and your stupid little boyfriend hadn't been so gods damned controlling, we wouldn't all fucking hate you, JSchlatt!" Charlie snapped.

Schlatt took a step back at that. He opened his mouth to speak but Charlie cut him off.

"So you're either coming with me to the Palcove willingly, or I'll drag you there myself." Charlie stared at Schlatt long and hard. The silence between them growing heavy and tense.

Schlatt sighed. "Lead the way," he groaned.

Charlie turned away from Schlatt and began their journey back to the Palcove.

The two walked in a line, neither talking to the other. Schlatt had not bothered to bring up Charlie's snapping and Charlie did not touch the subject. The two merely walked in silence. Night fell soon and the two had to find a place to camp out. Mobs and monsters were still out to get the two despite them both being dead; even more so now they were dead, Charlie had found. The two were easily able to handle the mobs, them being no harder to defeat then when they'd been alive.

As the two set down for camp, Charlie began making a fire. He pondered on how this would be seen to those who were alive. He wondered how-

"CHARLIE-" Schlatt jumped on Charlie, crushing him to the ground. The fire went out with a gush of air and something shot past the two of them. Looking up between lashes and locks of hair, Charlie could see a shadowed figure crash into a tree and break apart. It quickly reformed and Schlatt and Charlie scrambled to stand on their feet. "What the hell was that?!" Schlatt asked as the two took up a position of being back to back to cover more area of sight.

"You tell me!" Charlie yelled, crouching down to pick a bow out of the pack the two had made. He drew the arrow back and aimed for another figure that was rushed at them rapidly. The figure dissipated for a few moments and then reformed. "Fuck these things don't die! We've gotta get out of here now!" Charlie yelled. He grabbed one of the packs and drew back another arrow, shooting it at the shadowed figures as Schlatt made a break for it behind him. Charlie was quick to follow, occasionally shooting at the shadows to stun them in time for him and Schlatt to get further away.

...

Oopsie! Almost forgot about this story <3 but im at #2 on the epic smp tag so I'm so cool and swag and famous now <33