Within

13

Warning: This fic contains vore, slash, emotional distress, physical injury, mentions of rape, lots and lots of crying, and is generally for a mature audience. Read at your own discretion.

Boy, this whole thing sure would be suuuper out of character if not for context aha...ha ha...

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13

In time, the fear dulled, and he finally got up. His stomach grumbled, but first he did his exercises to maintain the muscle mass he'd had to rebuild.

He never did tell Mario what had happened while he'd been missing. He should have, but he didn't, and he didn't know if it was solely because he couldn't begin to put it into words. Eventually, Mario stopped asking. Luigi could sometimes catch him watching him warily, as if he was afraid he was going to hurt himself. It wasn't an entirely unfounded fear.

Luigi did his best to go back to a semblance of normalcy. It was difficult, when he felt like death was hovering nearby all the time. Maybe he was, invisibly. Luigi had no way of finding out. He never felt like anyone was watching him, but there was still some kind of pressure in the air. He was certain the jester couldn't let him go, just like that. Especially if it was all true.

He shuddered, remembering the touch of gentle lips upon his skin and soft whispers in his ear. He still didn't know how to feel. There shouldn't be room for more than disgust and fear. He supposed it never was a simple thing.

As he made himself breakfast, he started to daydream. Again, there was a certain appeal to the jester, and he did pity him. He couldn't imagine living a life without kindness or family. He'd had his brother to support him all his life, but Dimentio had not a thing to his name but his villainy. No one knew who he was or where he came from. Did he even know what real happiness felt like? Did he do atrocious things to share the pain and try to fill the void?

He recalled a bit of what he'd dreamed last night; the agony he'd felt during the final battle for the universe. Not physical, but emotional. He knew it hadn't completely been his own. What that could do to a person's soul...

His thoughts drifted to what had happened just before he'd been released. It hadn't been...bad, per se, because Dimentio apparently knew the meaning of stop. He could have easily ignored him. It made him wonder if maybe...the jester really did have feelings for him.

He didn't like to think that he might return them.

He'd never felt anything like this before.

It was really, really stupid, because Dimentio had hurt him badly. He looked at the scars etched faintly on the back of his hands. He had 100% intended to take away his life and those of the people he cared about. Just because he had changed his mine didn't mean the original intent was absolved. It was easy to put those terrifying weeks behind him and remember only the good bits. The mind didn't like thinking about the bad. He had to remind himself every day that he was extremely lucky to be alive.

And who knew what menagerie of crimes he'd committed in the past. How many lives taken? How many people left just as broken and shattered? What kind of insanity drove someone to desire the snuffing out of every single living thing in the universe?

He was extremely dangerous and unbalanced. Luigi wished Dimentio was still dead so he wouldn't have to be afraid. He waited every day for some news of him, for something to happen to someone he was close to, to be snatched away again and be taken to some horrible fate.

Every day that passed where nothing happened only added to the stress. He tried to shake them away, but he was no stranger to dark thoughts.

He should really try to focus on the good things he was grateful to have. Some days, it was hard. Like today. Today wasn't a good day.