The Life Game

A Home

Edge slipped out of his room to find his brother in the living room glaring at nothing. Never a good sign in anyone's books if Edge had anything to say about it.

"What is it?" Edge rasped, giving his brother space while hiding his bandaged hands in the folds of his sleeves.

"apparently one o' those daisy eyes bastards stumbled right through tha neighbourhood, disappeared before anyone could catch him." Red growled lowly in his throat before standing. "and 'ere were ya when all that went down, throwin' some kinda hissy fit in 'ere! are you even tryin' ta catch life or do ya wanna die this time 'round!"

Edge took a step back from his brother, feeling the magic coat the air as some sort of thick fog. Something Edge had only seen one time before. The results were never pretty. "Maybe I don't care anymore, have you ever thought of that Sans?" In reality he really didn't know if he cared any more. "I'm tired of this all, forgetting would be a break, even if it does mean dying."

"so ya would forget everythin'? forget why we're 'ere for just because your tired!" Sans shouted, anger peeking. "i don't know who the hell ya are, but your not my brother." Sans blipped out of existence, leave Edge to his thoughts and his conflicts.

Did he really want to die? To taste dust on his teeth? Did her really want to do that for this one being of Life? The scary thought was maybe he did, all because of a set of honey coloured eyes.

-0-

Red did not return and that was perfectly fine with Edge for the time being. Especially since the bane of his existence was sleeping on his bed.

Life's wounds were healing quickly, the blackness on Life's throat gone, and many of the scratches having stopped their flow. He was doing a lot better than Edge's own hands, which were burning and barely usable. He never knew that Life's blood was so dangerous to Death.

"am i dead yet?" Edge turned to the gravelled voice, staring down at the now black clad skeleton, his robes having been unsalvageable from whatever fights he had gotten into.

"Not yet, but you might be soon if you continue to test my patience." Life open his eyes and looked up at Edge hazily, and almost dead like.

"you might as well get it over with now, i'm horrible at tests." Life smiled, then frowned, and then shot up with a wince. "what happened to my clothes?!"

"I changed you since you were getting marrow all over my sheets." Edge stated as he frowned. "You have no idea how hard that is to get marrow out of cotton."

Life sent him a deadpanned stare before pulling distastefully at the black fabric. Likely hating it much more than physically possible. "and you couldn't have just put a towel down and waited till i woke up?"

Edge snorted, "with the amount of magic you were leaking, I needed something to cover up that stars awful scent, least my brother find you in here."

"why help me, your supposed to end life, to kill me and yet your not." Life looked up at him with wide lights. "why me and no one else?"

"...Your different." Was all Edge could come up with, because for some reason this skeleton was, out of all the other creatures out there, he was different even at first glance. "You can call me Edge."

Life suddenly beamed at him, "you may call me rus." He pulled up the hood of the cloak, covering his pale skull in darkness. "and thanks for saving me edge, i really needed the help."

"I may be Death, but I'm not heartless." Edge glanced over the skeleton in his robes, practical swimming in them at how big they were on him. " Well as heartfelt as a skeleton can be and my job may be to kill you and all you're creations off, but sometimes I don't like my job."

Rus snorted and tried to stand, his legs shaky from loss of marrow and Edge had to stoop in to catch him before he fell, careful to not connect bone to bone and blacken Rus's bones with pain. That also left Edge's injured hands in plain view.

"oh." It came out as something a little startled but quiet. Rus sitting heavily back on the bed, taking his hands with him. Headless of his own possible injury he unwrapped the cloth from Edge's bones and Edge could only stare. Stare at the gentleness, at the soft gaze, at everything that was Rus. "how did this happen?"

"Life's blood burns apparently." At Edge's words, Rus snapped his head up. Edge could see a lot in that one expression, but wasn't able to read it fast enough in order to see what it was.

"i'm sorry." Rus whispered, drawing his hands away and shoving them into the lap of his robes. Looking away from him as he continued to speak. "this is my fault, i shouldn't have come looking for you here."

Edge felt a sudden rage at Rus's words, a sudden realization. Rus hadn't simply wondered into their desert, he had purposely come looking for Edge. "Did you have a death wish?" He slammed his hands down on either side of Rus, smoke curling into the air from his curling fingers. "Or are you just stupid?"

"maybe both, i'm not very good at my job... most of the lives i create meet Death willingly, they greet it with open arms... we create life so that it fears Death, but i'm only able to make it seem welcoming for when it comes." He picked at his phalanges as he slouched in on himself. "i think it's because i would do the same if it came my way."

Edge stared for a moment more, his glare only increasing when he spoke. "And is that so terrible?" Rus whipped wide eyes his way at the command in his voice. "That they're not afraid of death, not afraid of sacrificing themselves for others, for themeless, I've met some of those souls in their decent and I have never seen something more honourable."

"but my job-" Rus tried pitifully.

"Screw your job if it tells you everything you do is a mistake! All Asgore has ever told us is that we're weak, and useless, and mistakes to the world! So we struggle to prove him he's wrong, it's why we wipe out life for him, why we get up after we die and try again, your souls do the same, they try again, and again, and again to succeed, to achieve, to get up in the morning! Is that so bad, is it so bad that they don't fear death? When it makes the life they're given just a bit sweeter because they have nothing to fear while they live it?"

Edge blinked when he noticed the tears flowing freely from Rus's eyes, his teeth chattering. "no." He croaked out before gripping onto Edge and pushing his face into his robes. Soaking the golden tears into his robes "it's not."

"Then go ahead and greet Death with open arms when he comes for you, he might even welcome you when you do." And he would, he would welcome this life and any other that came knocking at his door. Every soul was priceless to him, this one even more, and any life that it created.

A/N: I don't know why, usually I'm not that emotional, but writing this almost made me cry, and I rarely ever cry.

*****I'm also not saying go chasing death, I think I'm just saying that those who hold the lives of others above their own or living for your own well being is honourable... and maybe to wait for death when it's ready to welcome you...*****'

Gah how can I be so good at writing but so bad with words?!