I never stopped loving you {[VRISNEP ONESHOT]}

I never stopped loving you

(Word Count: 1406, I posted this one on Ao3 in November, quite proud of it, hope you enjoy it)

In this world, wings are a symbol of love.

A gift from the divine after Icarus failed to touch the sun.

The divine ones saw that everyone wanted to fly, wanted to be free in the sky with anyone who mattered.

So they let them have it at a cost.

Your wings are a symbol of love.

If someone starts loving you, they will grow.

If someone stops loving you, they will shrink.

If everyone keeps loving you, keeps caring about you, feathers will fill out wings to the point you can't ascend, a sign you've indulged in a good thing to much for your own good.

If everyone ceases loving you, ceases caring about you, feathers will fall off of wings to the point that they they're nothing but spindles that can no longer ascend and you become landlocked.

You are Vriska Serket.

Your wings are broken.

They don't swell, they don't shrink, and they haven't changed since Terezi left.

Each morning when you take a shower, pitch black feathers with cerulean undersides fall to the drain. You ignore it, you don't need a reminder that no one loves you anymore, or ever again. You play Flarp day by day to distract yourself, but as your wings get weaker and weaker, its harder and harder to survive.

Its a Saturday.

You fly through the sky, not a care in the world as your sadness is washed away by the same wind tearing off your feathers. Each time a feather comes loose it stings something fierce, but you're laughing.

This is it, the last flight of Vriska Serket.

The ship has long since been going down, you're just making sure it stays down for once.

When turbulence hit, it causes your wings to whip backwards as you start falling. A cloud of black and cerulean plumage is trailing after you as you fall. You laugh as you come closer and closer to the ground, your wings are naught but spindles barely reaching your upper arms at this point, nothing left to protect you from the bitter sweet end.

Contact.

Everything hurts for a second.

Its all black.

And you wake up finding a strain on your back.

Fuck, why do they have feathers?

More importantly, how are you still alive?

You crack open your eyes and find an all to familiar fave hovering above you, she gives a fang filled grin and you groan. She hops off of you, her wings are full, probably to full to fly with, everyone loves her and no one loves you. You slowly sit up, finding the pelt you had been lied down on was covered in your feathers. You stretch your wings and find that they reach out to your elbows, the feathers on them is scarce, but you can feel the tickle of pin feathers near the base.

You watch Nepeta from afar as you lay your wings at your side, hers are so large you're sure she has back problems. The amount of feathers make them appear puffy as she keeps them clamped shut, the tips still touch the floor of her cave.

It's three sweeps ago all over again, except her wings are larger, and yours are smaller.

You did something suicidal like that before, except she caught you as soon as you started spiraling out of control. You berated her and screamed at her for it as she held you tightly, lowering back down to the ground. She kept you bedridden in her cave for weeks until she was sure you were healed up.

Your wings were small last time, this time you had none left when she found you.

Nepeta turns and scampers back with a small bowl of something, presumably food, you hold it one hand. She plops herself down in front of you, staring at you unblinking, you stare back. Eventually her wings unfurl with a loud shuffle and a large amount of feathers fall from them and you look at her wings.

Fucking massive, she definitely can't fly.

"Mew should probably eat some soup Vwhiskers..." Nepeta said, glancing to the side a bit, you could feel a small puff of feathers sprouting on your wings, coincidental, you huff as you force a small spoonful into your mouth.

Holy fuck shit, her cooking skills have improved.

You glare at her for one more second before shoveling the soup like substances into your mouth, occasionally you glance up to see her smiling at you. You roll you eyes as you continue eating, the warmth of the food has you heating up to your core and it feels amazing. You finish your soup and place the bowl to your side, Nepeta is staring at you, you snarl at her as you push yourself back until your up against a wall.

"How come you saved me?" You spat, you didn't really want her help, she was perfect, everyone loved her, Icarus would jealous of her wings at this point.

"Because I can't just let someone like mew die! It would haunt me furever if I did!" Nepeta responds with, almost agitated you would even ask, but she sounds so genuine, and you feel a slight stretch of your wings, its so subtle you almost don't notice.

"I'm not worth little miss perfects time, I'm leaving," you said as you stood up and started to walk, after ten steps a wave of nausea washed over you and you nearly collapsed, correction, you did collapse, Nepeta caught you though, barely, one of her plush wings outstretched where her hand couldn't reach.

"No, no I don't think mew are," was what Nepeta said, pulling you in closer with a flick of her wing, it sent her feathers flying, you didn't notice, your heartbeat hastens, and for a second the amount of weight on your back is overbearing before you adapt.

Three days have passed and she doesn't leave your side once, taking care of you minute by minute, its almost annoying. But it feels really, really good to have someone actively care about you, you haven't felt it since Terezi. And it feels like your back gets more and more sore every hour, but the ache in your chest at how good it feels is more.

You and Nepeta are lying down on pelts beside each other, her feathers are falling off and now you notice it. You sit up and stretch your wings, finding that they reach to the tips of your fingers now, perfect for flying. For a second you wonder where the sudden growth spurt came from, where the bounty of feathers originated, and then you turned to Nepeta, she was suffering and you're doing great.

"Nepeta," you begin softly, she gives a soft noise in response and you continue, "when we first met, how come you saved me?"

"Cause I loved mew, idiot," Nepeta said, her face started burning up as you stared at her, she must've let it slip.

"Then when did you stop, my wings didn't grow anymore after everyone left me, and I left you?" You asked, your tone was forcibly even, you wrapped your wings around yourself a bit, Nepeta sat up and ran a hand through your hair.

"Vriska, I never stopped loving mew," Nepeta said softly as you lowered the wing closest to her, she wrapped her larger wing around you, feathers fell off, what did she do for people to stop loving her.

"How come my wings started dwindling then, everything started aching as the sting of losing a part of myself hurt so damn much Nepeta," you said, it was a question, but it didn't feel like one, cerulean tinted tears started to slip.

"I still loved you, it wasn't enough though," Nepeta said gently, still running her hand through your hair.

"And you still loved me, you still loved me so damn much it took sweeps to finally give in and finish it, and you kept loving me so much that it didn't work," you said, you were sobbing now, knees drawn to chest and leaning into Nepeta, "you loved me so much you would save a loser like me, so much you would take care of me, so much you would help me get back on my feet, for the second time."

"I know, that doesn't change a thing Vriska, I never stopped loving mew then, and I'll never stop loving mew now," Nepeta said, nuzzling her head against your own as a sign of affection, you sobbed into her, curling in on yourself.

Your entire body ached, it all hurt so much as weights were lifted from your chest and you felt like you could soar.

Soar in the skaia with Nepeta.