Work Text:
Mind’s curls were always tied up in a neat ponytail. He would attempt to capture as many strays as possible, smooth everything down, no frizz, just perfection. It would never work out well enough for him. Heart would use it as an excuse to tuck behind his ear any that had escaped, wipe them off his cheeks. Mind would lean in every time.
Heart’s hands lingering on Mind’s face. Drawing lines across his cheeks, probably hot with a blush - Mind blushed very, very easily, especially when Heart cradled his face in his hands and called him pretty.
And he was pretty. Heart still remembers his face going blue, his…
Him.
Heart’s breath catches in his throat.
He tugs Soul closer. It didn’t matter what Mind looked like when he smiled at him. He would never see it again. There were more important things, regardless. Like his Soul. Like…
Harmonia. Her grace.
Hands around his neck.
Heart cuddles into Soul as much as he can and traces the bruises Soul had left him and he doesn’t think about Mind, just him and Her and Seeing, everything and nothing at all because Heart can’t help it when his neck is touched, it’s-
He takes his fingers off his neck, drags in a long, long breath, and isn’t able to think about Mind anymore before he falls asleep in Soul’s arms.
Caging Mind in his grasp. He was never really caged. He could escape. He could try.
But he didn’t.
Resting against Heart’s chest, next to his pulse. Lulled to sleep by his Heart.
He looked so peaceful, so accepting. It ached that they couldn’t stay forever in Heart’s bed.
But it had to end.
Heart had realized his purpose, what he was. Mind hadn’t. Yet.
In the meantime-
(The meantime feels like it will last forever. Soul has practice with waiting but Heart doesn’t. He wants to entwine, he wants them together, he wants all of it and he wants to live-)
{This is not for me.}
he would give himself to his Soul.
Mind a necessary casualty. Until he came around.
(His heart hurts. His other half-)
If only he would come around.
“[I still love you.]” Mind tells him.
‘I still love you too,’ Heart doesn’t say.
‘I want you back. I want to touch you. I want you to talk to me and stop sounding so distressed.’ Heart doesn’t say.
‘What are you trying to do? You left me. What do you think you’re doing?’ Heart doesn’t say.
It runs together. Mind’s grip cloys. Sweet.
He doesn’t say anything. There’s nothing to say. He wants to preach to him, make him See, make him realize that Whole is what he needs.
None of the words come out, Heart doesn’t know how to start, not when Mind is telling him he loves him.
Mind puts a hand on Heart’s face. His body seizes.
His hand is cool on his cheek and it reminds him of before and he doesn’t want to be reminded of before because he doesn’t know what he will do, except it’s nice, nice to think Mind loves him, nice to think Mind doesn’t - doesn’t -
“[Heart. Please. Just for one more moment. Don’t you remember what it was like to pretend we were okay? We can do that again. Just-]”
He wants to kiss Mind again, he wants their limbs to entangle, he wants Mind whispering nothings in his ear, he-
This is not for him.
He desperately fumbles for the words, he feels like he’s being tied in knots, this is not for him. This is not for him.
“(Please,)” Heart says, somehow, the one word butchered. (Heart’s always thought that Mind was pretty when he begged. It doesn’t sit the same when it isn’t Mind begging for his metal - or begging for him to stop. It was all the same to Heart, really, and all the same to Mind too - ‘stop’ and ‘keep going’ in turn.)
Mind loops his arms around Heart, hands next to his wings, and starts carrying him. Sparks of anticipation, of dread- Heart’s skin burns where Mind touches him. Like a knife twisting in his gut. Heart wants-
He should leave.
His body refuses to move. (He refuses to move.)
“(Mind,)” Heart drags out. “(I can’t-)”
Mind shushes him. “[Heart, you’re safe with me.]” It’s not-
Heart loves it. Heart hates it.
Soul is his [partner, lover, prophet, everything] and Heart is leaving him.
Mind continues comforting him, tracing little circles onto his back, and the energy drains from Heart, falling into him, unable to contain a whimper.
He opens the door with his elbow, never letting go of Heart. He tucks them both in.
“[Stay.]”
Heart can’t fall asleep.
He listens to Mind. Listens to every comfort he tells him. Listens to him telling him he loves him. Listens to the words growing fainter until they’re replaced by his leveled out breathing.
Heart wants to cut his skin off.
It’s soothing. This is where he should be.
Where he should be is with his - His, Heart could never have the privilege - Soul.
Heart stays in Mind’s grasp. He feels leaden.
Slowly, carefully, he begins to disentangle them. Mind shifts a bit but he isn’t woken up.
He needs to be with his Soul.
It doesn’t matter if he wants the weight of Mind’s arms on him. It doesn’t matter if he wants to be soothed to sleep by Mind’s breathing. It doesn’t matter.
It doesn’t matter if he wants to hear him wake up and mumble cutely and lean in even closer somehow, gracelessly feeling Heart’s wings.
It doesn’t matter if Mind’s the only one he wants to wake up to. If Mind has always been his everything.
He needs to leave. Leave, until Mind Sees. He needs to leave.
Soul is everything Heart could ever want.
(Mind left him first. He deserves this.)
(No-)
Heart pushes Mind gently aside and opens the door.
The lock clicks.
He calls out for Soul, and as always, he answers.