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[self_named]

Things weren't going well. Duo had taken a detour from the path because there had been vampires. Fucking. Vampires. And not the fun Maladicta-kind, either, but like evil, soulless, killer vampires, and Duo didn't have his extra ammo on him. Annagovia was running alongside him, silent and keenly watching the forest as it whipped past. Duo's plan

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[forged_hero]

Crooks, real crooks, the kind that can topple towns and governments without picking up a swords, those are the criminals that don't have especially great turnouts for executions. There's no blood on the hands, see? If the adverts don't allude to maiming, raping, or cannibalism, there usually isn't a very good show.

There hadn't been very many at the death of Alfred Spangler. Moist had hardly touched a sword, leaving 2.38 people completly aside. He wasn't good at blood, even coming from Uberwald, where the Vampires had the decency to summon you politely by memo and coach when they felt like a mid-morning snack.

These vampires...well. There weren't many manners floating around at all, and he hadn't seen Duo since morning.

There was blood on his collar and sleeves when he jogged into the clearing, his hands still jittery, clutching a convenient splinter of bloodied wood with one hand. He saw the church before he saw Duo and for a moment, he stood there dumbfounded, starring.

They're screaming...they're all burning...

And then he saw Duo, almost too late. It wasn't even thought, precisley. It was all reflex. With a curse he hurled himself forward, tackling Duo to the ground only a few feet from the reach of the flames. His whole right side felt scortched.

"Are you mental? You'll die if you go in there."

And it didn't matter that I did, for a cap and and old man and a cat because that was part of the show and it meant that I would come out winning and it was me that was doing it, which mean that it wasn't you.

[self_named]

"Let me go!" Duo yelled, voice desperate, lashing out, trying to scrabble toward the building. "I have to get in there! I have to!"

[forged_hero]

Moist pinned him with great effort, blood still drying on his hems and his cufflinks.

"If you go in there, you will die," Moist said, speaking slowly, "There isn't anything in there that you could save, not anymore. Not by now. If you go in..." A chunk of cherry hot masonry dislodged from one of the upper stories and collapsed in to the blaze. "You will not come back. Listen to me Duo. Listen."

[self_named]

Duo eyes were burning, and he couldn't tell if it was from the heat of the fire or something else he couldn't own up to.

"No, I- No, Moist, please listen, please," he begged and Duo couldn't remember ever begging for anything in his life. Not out loud.

"I have to try. Please let me try. I can't let it happen again, please. Moist, please."

[forged_hero]

Moist face remained stern, firm, just like the grip on Duo's wrists. The sense memory that the fear and the fire drudged up were almost over-powering, but he focused, anchored. Duo.

"No. Anyone in there is long past saving. You have to know that." He levered his weight forward, trying to get Duo to look him in the eye, breath coming quicker than he'd like to admit. "We can clean up the ruin and bury ashes but you running in there now, like this? It's not going to do anything." He took a deep breath, still pinning him, mind running a thousand times faster than his mouth and - fuck - wasn't that temple familiar?

"Come on, sweet heart," he pleaded, swallowing, "Take a deep breath."

[self_named]

Duo strained against him again, but not anywhere hear hard enough to pull away, lines of his face taught, breath breaking in his throat in tight, dry sobs.

And then he broke, squeezing his eyes shut and gritting his teeth together and curling in on himself, against Moist, holding his breath as hard as could, his body's gut response to crying.

[forged_hero]

When the push and the struggle subsided, Moist only relaxed for half a second before he felt the first shake of Duo's ribcage. Then he was moving onto one side and hauling Duo against him.

He squeezed him gently, just until the effects of sympathy would be unbearable and undermine Duo's attempts to keep the emotion pent up, inside.

"Easy, sweetness," he said softly, still overheated from the fire but out of direct danger now. "...easy..."

[self_named]

Duo made a very quiet choking noise as he curled up further, more tightly, clinging desperately to Moist. Under the pain and the guilt and the panic, his rational brain was working hard.

This wasn't real. That wasn't the real church and those weren't the real bodies inside of it. Father Maxwell wasn't in there. Sister Helen wasn't in there.

But it didn't matter. They may as well have been. He gave a low sort of keening noise and ducked his head as far down as it would go.

[forged_hero]

For a long while, Moist just held onto him, pressing his lips against his temple and telling him white lies that wouldn't help but were pitched in the kind of voice that was trying.

"It's not real," he said eventually, having to almost shout to talk over the roar of the fire. "I'm sorry. I wish you had that chance but...you don't, Duo. Not now. You've already done everything you can."

[self_named]

Duo swallowed hard, breathing harshly, and turned in Moist's grip, straining slightly against the hold but not pulling away, nothing more than the residual yearning to run after the people he couldn't save. His attention was fully on the burning building and he stared at it until the brilliance of the flames were burned into his retina.

He wasn't watching the sky.

[forged_hero]

There was still a tremor in Moist's hand when it settled on Duo's side, counting ribs. He wondered if anyone had thought to stop him when he'd run into the post, but the, no one really thought he could die, either. The island had a much more realistic approach, and it had already proven that. They just laid there, looking at the blaze, face pink from the fire. It was quiet. There wasn't really anything else to say.

It didn't occur to him to try to get Duo to move. It didn't occur to him to look up, either.

[self_named]

"...I swear to God," Duo whispered, to himself, "I swear to God, I swear, I swear I swear I swear I'd give anything...I swear it..."

[forged_hero]

"Hush," Moist said quietly, voice pitched low. "Shh...you've done everything...everything you could have. We can stay here as long as you need to, but you've already done what you could....now, easy. Shh..."

[self_named]

Duo stilled and quieted and watched the church burn with a wrecked sort of expression.

[forged_hero]

And Moist just spread his hand over the thin tee-shirt and held on to him, something nervous and desperate and useless pressing against his ribcage.

He murmured something else softly, fingers knotting in the tee-shirt, as if that could some how anchor Duo more securely. There was a strange kind of noise that was coming from the sky, but Moist didn't even look up. It barely registered over the roar of the fire.

"...okay..." he went on gently, his hand wide and heavy and spread on Duo's side.

[self_named]

Duo moved a little when Moist moved him, or leaned when there was pressure against him, but otherwise just stared. It was a frighteningly empty look.