Work Text:
"Attention! Breaking news! We repeat: as previously announced, the Moon has been knocked out of orbit by a meteorite of unknown origin and is heading toward Earth at incredible speed. According to scientists, the collision is inevitable and will occur in 15 minutes. As the presenter of this news, I ask you to do everything you've been putting off for so long while you have the chance. Ahem, and now the floor goes to our sponsor…"
Click. The TV screen went dark as quickly as it had come on. The presenter's voice—quite pleasant, it should be noted—cut off mid-sentence.
Phainon leaned back against the couch with a heavy sigh. He'd certainly heard previous reports on this channel and read entire threads discussing the approaching end of the world online, but… he still wasn't prepared. Hardly anyone can be prepared for death. Even those who supposedly go to it deliberately.
It's one thing to read subreddits about the waking Apocalypse and laugh at jokes about Zelda references, but quite another to look out the window and see a huge moon blocking more than half the sky.
And just as luck would have it, his parents decided to take off on vacation right now, taking his sister with them, leaving him at home under the pretext of studying for exams. What good were exams when the end of the world is in 15 minutes? Although... maybe it wasn't so bad after all? At least he had the chance to confess to him before he died... What was that presenter saying? "Do everything you've been putting off in your life while you still can"? Great, it seemed like the perfect time to do it.
The first step, obviously, was compiling it. Some kind of of "bucket list." Phainon didn't even have to think about which item to write first in the new note. Two items, to be exact. He just didn't expect one of them to decide to come true.
Chat with user His Fucking Highness Mydeimos:
Saturday, April 17th
Hey, Deliverer. 4:48 PM
Have you seen the news? 4:48 PM
4:48 PM i can't believe u texted me first
4:48 PM never cease to amaze me, ur highness
4:48 PM saw it ofc
Scoundrel. 4:49 PM
Waiting for you at our place. 4:49 PM
Don't be late. 4:49 PM
4:49 PM what??
4:49 PM have u said goodbye to your mom yet?
4:49 PM mydei?
"Damn it!" Phainon hissed, locking his phone. He himself wanted to text his... best friend, but he hadn't counted on a meeting—he was sure Mydei would prefer to spend his last minutes saying goodbye to his mother, the most important person in his life, and that's how it is...
However, sitting and pondering the actions of a man who you always has no idea what's going on in his head now, 12 minutes before the inevitable, makes absolutely no sense.
The way to the school, where their place was located on the roof, was a normal ten-minute walk, but if he broke into a run, he could get there in five. Then there was the matter of getting to the roof itself... at worst, it would take two minutes. Luckily, at least Phainon wouldn't have to fiddle with the lock—if Mydei was there, he'd already figured everything out.
He decided to spend the remaining time on the second item on the list—talking to he parents.
"Hello?" came the voice on the other end of the line after several interminable rings. "Oh sweetie, thank goodness you called right now," the woman said with a sigh of relief.
"Missing you guys."
"I'm on the phone with our child... Who else would I be talking to right now?" Judging by the muffled sound, it was said off to somebody.
"Hey sport!" came his father's voice. "We wish you were here with us, but I guess it was bad timing on our part."
"Oh yeah Phai, we really wish we could die together, but these things..." Cyrene sobbed.
"Ypu can't plan for things like this. Are you okay though?"
"I'm scared, mom."
For a few minutes, there was silence on the line. Only the howling wind, the voices of people on the street around him, and his ragged breathing.
"I want you to listen to me... Go enjoy these last 15 minutes doing whatever you want. And I mean whatever you want. Just no hard drugs, please. Maybe soft ones... Anyways, dad, your sister and I want you to know that we love you so, so much and...
The call cut off right in the middle of the school stairs. Phainon stopped, nearly tripping, but got up and rushed on—"Not now, not the time, make it, I have to make it, 6 minutes…"
The door to the roof didn't budge on the first try, and Phainon even considered kicking it down, but his trembling hands were the cause of his hitch. He tugged the handle again, and a powerful gust of cold wind blew into the stairwell. The clock showed a disappointing 4:56 PM.
"Wow, you're almost not even late, Deliverer."
And indeed, it was him. Mydei. With a shock of long hair the color of wheat ears at sunset and a small braid by his right ear, wearing a black T-shirt and dark jeans. And opposite him, just a few meters away, was Phainon, out of breath, with a nest on his head and wearing tattered yellow and purple pajamas…
"I love you."
Mydei turned around so abruptly that his neck cracked. He crossed the entire roof in two steps, grabbed his friend by the shoulders, and pressed his lips to his as desperately as if he'd been waiting for this moment his whole life.
"Me too. I love you too," came the moment they had to break apart for air.
Time slipped away like sand through fingers. The last minutes. The last... but at least together. As always.
The Moon grew closer behind them. Beautiful, perhaps, but nothing and no one could be more beautiful than Mydei.
The ground beneath their feet trembled, but they were so tightly entwined in an embrace that they didn't feel it at all.
Only when the people below screamed, in fear or delight, and the wind stopped gently ruffling their hair, threatening to knock them off their feet, they were able to come to their senses.
"I'm sorry we didn't have time to do so much," Phainon almost shouted, no longer hearing himself or anything around him.
Mydei didn't have time to reply. 5:01 PM. Time's up.
It's all over.
Phainon opened his eyes, but saw neither the enormous Moon that filled half the sky, nor even Mydei. Only tiny cracks on the dark ceiling.
He sat up abruptly in bed, trying to comprehend what happened, and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
Exactly. This was all a dream.
"Did you have another nightmare, Deliverer?" Mydei asked quietly, propping himself up on his elbows. He always notice when his beloved woke up in the middle of the night.
"Yes. I mean, no... Basically, I dreamed about the day we confessed..."
"You look so scared, as if I'd rejected you."
"Fortunately, no. It's just that the world ended. Rejection would have been a hundred times worse."
Mydei laughed hollowly.
"You see, the therapy is working after all – your dreams are starting to have relatively happy endings. Now, goodnight, Deliverer. We still have to go to work tomorrow."
Phainon obediently lay back down and immediately found himself wrapped in a tight embrace.
Is there any point in worrying? The dream will be forgotten tomorrow morning, and Mydei...
And Mydei will stay by his side until the end.