𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐃𝐞𝐰

All We Got Was Bruised

Sodo awoke with a jolt from a restless sleep, slipping in and out of dreams of him and Aether, some heartbreakingly happy memories and others painfully tragic.

Before he could be dragged back into the beginnings of his worst memory to date, Sodo got up and walked around the small attic, stretching out his tired muscles and joints.

He thought of what had happened before he went to bed, that strange sense of calm that had settled over him. He realized now that that had been quintessence magic. He'd been too occupied to sense the tingles of liquid lightning racing down his spine, chasing away the tension, but now he could tell that the leftover fog wasn't from his sleep.

He knew Phantom was nowhere near him, and even as powerful as Aether was he could never use his magic on someone that he couldn't see. The only time he was ever able to do it was when he lost control. Which meant. . .

Phantom was in trouble.

Sodo ran faster than he ever had in his entire life, down the stairs, through the hallways. He barely avoided careening into a sister of sin, and apologized as quickly as he could as she clutched her imaginary pearls.

"Phantom?" Sodo yelled, getting closer to the ghoul wing. "Phantom, where are you?"

As he got closer to Phantom's room, the tingling of haywire quintessence along his back got stronger.

"Phantom, are you. . .?" He stopped outside the door, hesitating when he reached to pull open the handle. He doesn't want to see you. He left, remember? He doesn't need you right now.

He stopped completely, hand frozen midair, debating. After what seemed like hours, he made his decision and turned around, cursing himself for his cowardice.

•.•.•

The first time Phantom had ever hurt himself, it had been an accident. He'd been rushing through washing the dishes, and accidentally cut himself on a kitchen knife.

He'd been surprised by the relief he felt when he saw the blood bubbling up around the shallow wound, and had been trapped in something akin to a trance for a few minutes before he snapped back to life and grabbed a towel to clean it up.

He'd been even more surprised by the tenderness of Void's hands as he took Phantom's palm in his, kissing the wound and wrapping a bandage around it.

Those tender hands had only turned sharp and cruel, and left Phantom wondering what he did to deserve this. What he did to deserve painful bruises chased by whispers of I love you so much, baby, I don't deserve you.

This wasn't what love was supposed to look like, was it?

Phantom was pulled away from his thoughts by Rain's questions. "When did you and Void a an get together? Was he ever gone for mysteriously long amounts of time and you didn't know where he was? Was—"

"I'm sorry, Rain, but I already told you all I know — he was at the fights every day for all of the three years we were together."

"How did you end up leaving him?"

"I was summoned," Phantom mumbled. He didn't know if he ever would have ended up leaving if it wasn't forced upon him. He had no idea if he would have ever escaped or if he would have died at the hands of the one who was supposed to love him.

"Oh," guilty realization dawned on Rain's features. He was remembering that day just as Phantom was.

"Fuck, please, Void—" Phantom cried, covering his face as best he could against the onslaught. He couldn't even remember what he'd done to deserve the hurricane of fists and hurled insults.

"Shut the fuck up, you pathetic mess." Each word was emphasized by a kick to his forearms. "I can't believe you— What the fuck?"

And then Phantom saw it too. A cloud of purple smoke surrounded them both, paired with a tug in his gut. "What's happening?"

"I don't know, Starlight," all of the previous aggression was gone, replaced by confusion.

"I—" Phantom was cut off by the kitchen around him spinning, slowly morphing into an unfamiliar room with church-like architecture. Everything felt wrong. His tail and horns had shrunk into his body and his fingers were missing claws.

Panic began to overtake him, and he felt his breathing speed up. Why did it smell weird? Why couldn't he move? Where the fuck was he?

"Phantom," Rain broke him out of the memory. From the sounds of it, he'd repeated the name multiple times before it worked. "Phantom, you're here, you're in your room, no one's going to hurt you, and Void isn't here."

"Void isn't here," Phantom said quietly. "He's not here, he can't hurt me."

"Do you want some tea or hot chocolate or something?"

"I think I'm okay," Phantom shook his head, guilt filling his heart. He didn't deserve the tender care that Rain was showering upon him. He'd nearly killed Sodo. Phantom almost wished for the anger to come back; at least it wasn't a foreign emotion.

"Phantom!" Aurora burst through the door, closely followed by Mountain. She sank down to where he was curled into a ball. Phantom practically peeled himself off of the wall and into her arms, finally letting himself cry. "Oh, my love, it'll be okay."

She let him cry, petting the area between his horns until she felt his breathing even out underneath her hand and soft snores could be heard. "Mountain, can you please gently pick him up and carry him down to the den? I'd do it but I can't, and I don't want him to wake up and panic."

Mountain nodded and with infinite care and grace, he scooped Phantom up and disappeared. Aurora stood up and gathered Rain into a hug.

"How are you feeling? You haven't really dealt with that kind of stuff in the past."

"I'm just. . ." he let Aurora gently pry his claws from digging into his palms, then dropped his head in her shoulder. "I feel so bad. I should have known, I was so terrible to him."

"Rain, I didn't even know until he told me after he had a nightmare," Aurora rubbed his arms. "Let's go downstairs and when he wakes up you can apologize."

"Swiss fucking punched him. We were so horrible. He's part of our pack and we were—"

"I swear to Satan if you say 'terrible' one more time I'm gonna shove the words 'you're a good person' so far up your ass you'll feel like Captain America for a week," that earned a halfhearted chuckle from Rain, and Aurora smiled at him. "Come on, let's go meet them, he's probably awake by now."

Rain nodded his head, and Aurora led them both downstairs. Rain went to sit next to Phantom's sleeping form on the couch, and Aurora started boiling some water for hot chocolate.

Fifteen minutes later, everyone was sitting around the fireplace cradling hot cocoa. Phantom's head rested on Aurora's lap, his legs on top of the armrest. Rain was lounged in one of the arm chairs, nearly disappearing into the puffy cushions. Mountain was on the floor, in a starfish position with his eyes closed.

A soft murmur of conversation floated above them all. Rain and Mountain were talking quietly together, and Aurora was still whispering comforting words to Phantom.

A knock on the door interrupted them, and Rain raised a lazy hand. "Can someone else get that? I'm comfy."

Phantom nodded and reluctantly got up from where he was sitting. He had a bad feeling about whoever was on the other side, but he pushed it down, chalking it up to him being paranoid.

With shaking hands, Phantom opened the front door, expecting to see a sibling of sin or one of the townspeople needing help.

"No," Phantom stepped away from the door, nearly bumping into Rain, who'd gotten up to see what was going on. "No no no, you're not here. Go away."

Rain stood open mouthed. "Void? What the fuck are you doing here?"