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Zach found himself on the small hill, where he and Zorian often times hung out together during the time loop, whether to have a casual conversation or to make absurd plans for whatever objective they had at the time.
He had even't noticed, making his way here. His only intention had been getting out of the city, not wanting to look at it anymore. He let his steps lead him, not putting much thought where he was going. Unconsciously, he had arrived at this little, peaceful place.
He walked to a tree and sat himself on the grass, laying his back against the trunk. He let his reeling mind finally process the events of today.
They had won. Somehow they had won. After years of trying, Zach had finally completed his goal: to stop the invasion of Cyoria.
And even more miraculously, he didn't die at the outcome. Wouldn't be dying, since everybody who remembered about the time loop had their memories erased. How Zorian had accomplished it, Zach didn't know, but his fellow time looper had always been able to perform the most outrageous and unbelievable things. Zach firmly believed that if anybody was able to do this, it was Zorian.
The situation was so unreal to him, that he couldn't even properly process his feelings. He was happy he was going to live past this month, but the hundreds of death that happened on this day made him feel disgusted with himself for even feeling a shred of happiness. He was relieved not to be stuck in a time loop anymore, and yet at the same time he wished he had one more chance to get everything right.
Zach had no notion of how long he sat there. What pulled him out of his daze were the fireworks exploding in the sky, bathing the night in colorful lights.
The night of the summer festival. It was a bit strange for the celebration not to be interrupted by hordes of monsters and artillery spells raining down from the skies. And it was also this moment he realized everything was over.
Meaning Zorian was really dead, and he was not coming back in the next time loop.
Tears ran down his face with the unwelcome realization. There would be more shared moments on the hill, no more fighting monsters together, no more late night conversations.
He had lost the only person who knew Zach better than he knew himself, who brought out the best parts of him and curbed the worst.
Deep in his soul, Zach felt the contract with the angels dissolving.
He tucked his face into his knees and began to cry earnestly, sobs pulled out of his throat.
He was finally free, and all it cost was the life of his soulmate.
Zach doesn't know when he fell asleep. He must have eventually dozed off on the hill, the exhaustion of the day catching up to him. The strange thing, however, is that he doesn't wake up to grass under his feet and wind in his face, but to a strangely soft surface. A bed his mind registers.
He opens his eyes to a room that resembles his dormitory in. In a glance over the room, his gaze stops dead set on another bed a few meters away from me.
In the bed, Zorian is sleeping.
Sleeping, and not dead, because despite being very pale, Zach could see him breathing, his chest rising and falling almost imperceptibly.
He wonders once again if he's trapped in an illusion. Even while praying that this is reality.
He checks if his mind blank is still there and confirms it's still activated. Apparently, though, Zorian found a way to circumvent it, because he hasn't dropped it for a single moment, since the start of the battle. At least, he doesn't remember doing so.
Faced with an alive Zorian, it's clear the boy was somehow able to mess with his mind. Everything becomes so much clearer with the realization. Of course, his fellow time looper wouldn't sacrifice himself, it just doesn't align with his personality. No, it would make much more sense if he had figured out a way to make Zach think he died. Zorian has always been a manipulative, cunning and devious bastard.
Zach has never been more glad of it.
Doesn't change the fact he's still mad at him, though. He thinks on what punishment he should deliver and remembers the hundreds of times Zorian complained about waking up in the time loop by his sister jumping on him. Time to enact some poetic justice.
He runs towards the bed and jumps on Zorian while shouting “You bastard!”
Zorian doubles over, and disoriented, “What? Why?” Then he sees what woke him up and says relieved, “Oh, Zach.”
Zach lifts himself from his position of laid across Zorian and settles over his legs, staring at him accusingly, “You fucking bastard, I thought you died!”
Zorian lifts an eyebrow, the audacity, “Yes, Zach, that was the whole point.”
Zach jabs his finger into Zorian's chest and repeats, “I thought you fucking died.” He hopes Zorian will understand the implications of such an act, because clearly until now he hasn't understood the ramifications of it. Perhaps repeating the fact will make Zorian understand exactly what he put Zach through.
Zorian just seems annoyed, though, “You couldn't be even a little grateful that I saved your life?”
Zach stares at him incredulously for a while. Then he smacks his injured friend.
“Ow,” Zorian says, scowling and rubbing his head. Then he gestures towards himself exaggeratedly, “What the hell, Zach!? I'm already hurt!”
Zach wonders, idly, if that actually hurt or if Zorian is just being purposely difficult. Probably the latter, because Zach didn't hit him that hard. But, despite having a month to build up the body, Zorian has never been really muscular.
Regardless, Zach is too furious to stop, and continues hitting his friend's chest. Possibly a bit more softly, the purpose isn't to hurt him after all, just to drive home the point of how infuriated he is with Zorian's latest plot.
Zorian tolerates it for a few seconds, probably thinking he deserves some of it, and he does the utter bastard, even so, clearly, his patience has a limit. “Stop that!” Zorian exclaims, irritated and grabbing both of Zach's wrists.
Zach does stop and stares into Zorian's eyes, remembering how on his friend's dead body they looked so dull, missing the spark so characteristic of someone alive. How he thought he would never see the excitement in them when Zorian was learning new magic abilities, so clearly there, but hidden. Or how he would never be able to ever see the concentrated look Zorian would get when planning something.
His sight gets kinda blurry, and Zorian's face softens.
He's crying, he realizes.
Zorian lowers Zach's raised wrists and releases one of them. The other he guides to his own heart and places Zach's hand over it, splaying his palm. Then Zorian's free hand, a bit hesitantly, comes to rest on Zach's nape, a comforting weight there.
His friend murmurs, “Hey, it wasn't real. I'm alive.” With an apologetic tone, he continues, “I am sorry about what I put you through, but I didn't see any other way to get out of this with both of us alive.”
“I don't regret it.” He says with steel in his voice.
Zach buries his face into the crook of Zorian's neck. He, unsuccessfully, tries to convince himself it's only to hide his increasing tears. However, he can admit to himself, it's because he wants a touch of reassurance after thinking he had lost the other. He wants to feel the warm skin, signaling that his partner is alive.
One of his arms circle Zorian's waist, and he holds on with a tight fist the fabric of Zorian's shirt. His other hand is still over Zorian's heart, where he can feel the steady heartbeat against his palm, the constant thump-thump.
He doesn't know when the fact, that Zorian's alive, will stop being such a wonder.
When he does calm down enough that he's not sobbing, and some of his embarrassment has faded away, he whispers into Zorian's skin, “I'm glad you're alive”. He pauses momentarily, it's too honest, too raw, so he adds “Even if it means you're a scheming bastard.” He sniffles a bit after.
Zorian chuckles, and says softly against his ear: “I'm glad you're alive, too.”