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The atmosphere in the room was warm, as Venus lay on the floor. He wasn’t really laying on the floor for any particular reason, but he just told himself he was tired. But he still felt restless, especially after he’d had an encounter with a shadow demon earlier, during his shift at STEAMFALL. Usually, when he encountered a shadow demon, he was supposed to kill them, but…he never had the heart to do that. He could get in trouble at the company for that, but he didn’t care. Everyone thought shadow demons were “dangerous” and “mindless”. But he didn’t understand that at all. All the ones he’d met had been…normal, not “mindless” or “dangerous”. Sure, some may have been violent, but that was only when they were scared. Plus, shadow demons were just normal demons, but with Voided parts. Basically, voided meaning that if they lose a limb, it turns into a “shadow” of sorts. He didn’t know much about them other than that though. Earlier he had found a random shadow demon, just…looking through stuff in a trash can. Their head was voided, which was new to him. He’d never seen that before. He didn't get to examine them for very long though, as the moment they looked at him he had run away out of fear. And now he was here, in his room, overthinking a lot of things. Venus decided that he was done, finally sitting up while stretching his arms as he stared blankly at the door. He sighed, getting up and opening the door. He stared at the floor while walking, thinking about that shadow demon he’d seen earlier, when suddenly bumped into something. “Eh- what? there’s not anything h-” *he stopped short, frozen in place. Right there in front of him, was the shadow demon. Their “eyes” were glowing white circles of light, on their shadowed head. They stared right back at Venus, making a little glitchy noise. Venus moved backwards after a moment, his movements shaky and slow as his wide eyes stayed right on the shadow demon. “H-how the f–- did you get i-in my house…” Venus muttered, staring right into the shadow demon’s bright glowing “eyes”. They just tilted their head, making no noise this time. As Venus realized they didn’t have any bad intentions, he decided to move forward again, putting on a tough front and glaring right at the shadow demon. “You can’t talk, huh?” Venus said, his voice laced with a fake irritation. He was still quite scared, but trying to act tough anyways. The shadow demon shook their head no, and suddenly Venus noticed they had a tail. It was a knife tail, like the one Echo used to have, Venus’s dead boyfriend. This shadow demon had a knife tail that looked almost exactly the same, but the metal was rusted. Venus stopped glaring, now an expression of even more shock on his face, as the shadow demon’s eyes looked slightly worried now as they made a tiny glitchy squeak. It was just a coincidence, right...? It couldn’t be Echo, he was dead.... Venus quickly ran off to grab a paper and pen, leaving the shadow demon standing there worried and confused.
Vo1d’s pov
He stood there, confused why Venus just ran off. Was he scared of him? Well, he didn’t look like how he used to, so he guessed it was that. Vo1d continued to stand still, his tail swaying slowly in discomfort. He wanted to tell Venus everything…but he couldn’t. No matter how hard he tried. But, Vo1d thought that he would at least recognize him. But supposedly not. He continued to stand there, admiring the nice hallway. It wasn’t all that much, but he had been living in a dumpster for the past 5 years, so to him it was almost like a mansion. He finally walked to the door he saw Venus go in, slowly putting his hand on the knob. He hesitated, not wanting to invade Venus’s privacy (even though he literally broke into his house), so instead he decided to explore the open areas of the house. He wandered over to the kitchen, immediately spotting a cat keychain. His “eyes” glowed even brighter, and he quickly rushed to inspect the keychain. It was a gray cat, made of plastic. Vo1d had loved cats ever since he could remember, even when he was “dead” and roamed the streets 90 percent of the time, any time he saw a cat he would get distracted easily, petting it for hours. He decided to put the keychain in his pocket, hoping Venus wouldn’t notice it was gone. He lingered over to the couch he saw earlier, wrapping a blanket that was on the couch around him and laying down, slowly closing his eyes. For the first time in years he felt…safe.
Venus’s pov again
He scrambled around his bedroom, searching for some sort of paper. After a while he gave up, grabbing a small whiteboard and marker he found instead. He never used the whiteboard, so he didn’t really care about letting the shadow demon use permanent marker on it. After about 8 minutes he walked back out of his room quickly, not closing the door behind him. He didn’t see the shadow demon anywhere, and got a bit scared, thinking they were hiding. He looked around, following the hallway out of his room to the living room. He let out a sigh of relief as he saw the shadow demon sleeping on the couch. They looked cozy, so he decided against waking them up. He sat on the far end of the couch, still keeping a bit of distance from them. He couldn’t help but think about their tail looked almost identical to Echo’s tail. He just sat there, thinking as he stared at them, just sleeping peacefully…it almost made him want to sleep as well. He decided to just sleep, since the shadow demon didn’t seem like they were gonna wake up anytime soon and Venus had nothing else to do at the moment. So, he set the whiteboard and marker down, taking another blanket he grabbed from his room and adjusting his position on the couch. The couch wasn’t really long enough for Venus to lay down very far from them, so he decided to just deal with it. He was still not very trusting of the shadow demon, but he was comfortable enough to deal with this minor inconvenience. They both lay back to back, and Venus drifted off into a deep sleep..
Vo1d’s pov
Vo1d’s eyes fluttered open, and he made a small glitchy yawning sound as he stretched his arms off the couch. He looked out the window, noticing the moon was bright out. He felt warm, almost too warm, a slightly high pitched glitched grunting noise escaping his throat as he tried to kick his blanket off of himself. However, he felt as if a heavy weight was pulling down a corner of the blanket. He jerked his head back, a bit annoyed, but he noticed someone’s back pressed against his, and he realized Venus had slept right next to him. He squirmed off of the couch, small drops of shadow colored sweat dripping down his face, and he blushed furiously as he
tried to comprehend why Venus had slept RIGHT next to him. His tail wagged not out of excitement, but because of how hot and bothered he was feeling. He took off his jacket, but still felt as though he was boiling. He glanced at Venus again, noticing how even in his sleep, he was always at least a little shaky. He noticed that Venus’s tail was wagging slowly as if it was trying to wrap around something, and he suddenly remembered that in the past whenever Venus was scared, he’d wrap his tail around Vo1d’s leg. A pang of sadness hit him and he forgot all about being flustered, as he realized Venus was most likely having a nightmare. He jumped over on the couch to try and wake up Venus, but Venus flinched and sat up quickly at the vibration, so Vo1d didn’t really have to do anything. Venus’s breathing was shaky, and Vo1d’s eyes drooped in worry. “AH- oh, it’s just you…can you just tell me who you are…? I would feel more comfortable with you in my house if I at least knew your name.” Venus spoke quietly, his voice still a bit shaky as he examined Vo1d’s appearance. Vo1d noticed the whiteboard, quickly grabbing it and slowly attempting to write his name with his remaining left hand. He took a long time, making Venus a bit impatient. After about 10 minutes Vo1d proudly showed him the writing, only for him to squint his eyes in confusion. “What does…that even say?” Venus muttered, making Vo1d whine in disappointment, his little sounds he made still glitchy. Vo1d dropped the whiteboard on the ground, sitting with his arms crossed, his glowy eyes becoming half lidded. Venus just chuckled nervously and got up, slowly approaching Vo1d. Vo1d didn’t seem to care all too much, his eyes going back to their original shape as he uncrossed his arms, placing his hands onto the floor. Venus slowly patted his head, making Vo1d let out a purr of contentment. “Aww…well, at least you're a cute little guy, and not some murderer like those other shadow demons…” Venus smiled softly at Vo1d. However, Vo1d quickly moved his head away from Venus’s hand and huffed, clearly not liking that remark. Venus tilted his head, attempting to pet Vo1d again, but he just did the same thing. “What's got you all pissed off?” Venus looked extremely confused, and Vo1d just sat there in a sort of upset manner. He wanted to be able to talk to Venus so badly, but he just…couldn't. And although the fact that Venus thought all shadow demons were murderers made him feel angered, Vo1d just decided to leave that for when he found a way to communicate with Venus. Venus looked at Vo1d with worry, realizing he had done something wrong. “Sorry…Ah…well, you can’t really tell me what you're all mad about, huh…?” Vo1d nodded at his words, and Venus smiled a little. Vo1d got up, looking around for a moment before spotting some letter magnets on the fridge. He immediately got on all fours and ran over, sitting like a dog next to the fridge as Venus came over as well. “Huh? What is it…?” Venus questioned, as Vo1d frantically tried to direct Venus’s attention to the magnets. After a while Venus realized what he meant and nodded to show he understood. Vo1d arranged the letters, making it spell out “Vo1d”, his own name. Venus nodded again, and got a little closer. “Huh…so is that your name?” He spoke quietly, waiting for some sort of response from Vo1d. Vo1d nodded at a fast pace, and Venus ended up grabbing his chin to stop him, speaking softly to the other. “Careful, you’re already injured enough as is, wouldn’t want you breaking your neck too…” Venus chuckled afterwards, petting Vo1d on the head. Unbeknownst to Venus, Vo1d was extremely flustered by this, and the comment calling him cute from earlier. This whole time, Vo1d had known that Venus was…well, Venus, but Venus was not aware that Vo1d was Echo. And since they had not seen eachother in years, Vo1d was kind of down bad over Venus. But, since Vo1d’s shadow head could barely convey his emotions, Venus just thought he was spacing out or something…oh he was so wrong. Vo1d got a little closer to Venus’s hand, and Venus smiled a bit at this, thinking Vo1d was just being affectionate, muttering, “Aww…hey, you kind of remind me of someone!!...He's dead now though…”. Venus began to trail off, the petting motion from his hand coming to a stop as he just stared at the ground. Vo1d didn’t really intend for Venus to get all sad, but he had an idea. Vo1d went over to the fridge again, spelling out his past name, “Echo”. Venus looked up, his eyes widening a bit as he stared at Vo1d, then the name, back and forth. “Yes, that was his name…how did you know?” Venus eyed Vo1d a bit suspiciously, flinching when Vo1d started to point at himself, then the magnets. Venus tilted his head, then an idea popped into his head. “Did you know him…?”. Vo1d let out a short glitchy huff and shook his head no, pointing more frantically. Vo1d thought for a moment, then an idea popped into his head…but that wasn't possible, right…? No, he was dead…this- this couldn't be him…right? Venus got a little closer, grabbing Vo1d by the shoulders and staring him right in the eyes. From this close, he could feel Vo1d’s face growing warm, and saw the pitch black sweat droplets forming on his shadowy head. Venus tilted Vo1d’s head up to inspect it, making Vo1d yelp in surprise. He was so flustered he could just faint…he thought that Venus was…well…yknow. Venus inspected Vo1d’s neck, noticing the abrupt cut off from the neck to the shadow head, and how bloody it was. “So…are you Echo-??” Venus spoke as though he expected Vo1d to say it was a prank. But Vo1d just nodded, still quite a bit flustered but not as much as before. Venus just started to tear up, he had NO idea how to take this. Venus just fell forward, using his hands to prop himself up as he stared at the floor. Unexpectedly, Vo1d grabbed him into his arm, stroking the back of his head comfortably, just letting Venus lean on him. Venus sobbed into Vo1d’s shirt holding into him, as if if he didnt Vo1d would disappear.