A White Orchid Broken in the Rain

If you only knew

I'm hangin' by a thread, the web I spin for you

If you only knew

I'd sacrifice my beating heart before I'd lose you

"Niki?"

A voice she hadn't heard in ages wrapped around her, sending her emotions into a furious whirlwind as she paused her mixing of ingredients, taking a breath before facing the man she once called her closest friend. A blue bowl of flour stood half mixed with sugar on the black quartz counter crossing the far wall of the room at waist level, above spruce cabinets meticulously organised by careful hands.

He stood at the door of her new kitchen, an ancient hurt in a new space built out of hope of moving on. She had finally returned to baking as a way to pass the time and make some money selling it to various world members and had spent the previous month building this room.

The soft lantern light reflected in Wilbur's scratched and rounded frames sitting on a tired man's face, chestnut curls messy with one white strand brushing his brow. A long, tattered overcoat hugged his thin frame, eyes sunk behind the damaged frames, cheeks hallowed. His yellow sweater hung loose from skeletal shoulders, bones visible even through multiple layers of fabric. Black pants and boots covered his lower half, sewing coming loose in various seams in the clothing covering the broken man.

All were soaked through from the rain, Niki had been out earlier collecting new flowers for her city before she was driven inside by the weather. The man looked pathetic, drowned, sadness clung to him like water to leaves in the morning dew.

Niki took notice of how ragged Wilbur was, battered and bruised by the harsh world. Her gut burned with a deep rage, before her stood the man responsible for most of the strife caused over the past few, bone-tiring years. Nations had fallen under his capable hands, ones that could be used for bloodshed or gentle touch, explosions or love. The most dangerous individuals were capable of both, the man before her embodied those concepts exactly, both extremes wrapped up in one being.

She placed down her whisk, moving to wash her dainty hands before facing the man again. Her coal-black jeans are coated with flour, only clean in the places her pink waist apron covered, which she laid across the counter beside the bowl. An old blue graphic t-shirt of hers was all she wore today, not expecting company Niki felt dressed down. Her pink hair was tied in a high ponytail, green bandana keeping the flyaway strands in check.

"Wilbur." She responded simply, her musical voice low and steady for the inner turmoil that rolled through her gut.

They looked at each other for a long time, light caramel eyes meeting the dark spruce. Wilbur nervously picked at his clothes, breaking her gaze, seemingly searching for words before Niki finally broke the silence.

"How did you find me?" She asked, curiosity overriding any other emotion right now.

"Technoblade sent me the coordinates and told me how to get in." He answered simply, his fists gripping tight once before he faced her once more, rambling. "I went looking for you and ran into Eret, who directed me to Pogtopia, where I found Fundy-"

His face falls as his voice breaks, the fox's name being the last thing out of his mouth before his hand movements pick up speed. He wrung his fingers and his chest expanded quickly, taking gulping breaths as his brown eyes welled up once more. Dread filled Niki's gut as she worried what happened to the fox man, they hadn't spoken in ages but there were times when she counted him among her closest companions. Though distance had grown, relationships formed during the harshest of times ran the deepest, their circumstances certainly fell under that umbrella.