Brothers who Dye Together, Die Together

“I can’t see you, Gear…”

Chain’s voice was starting to weaken in strength, evident by the way it drifted off into a wet rasp, and yet it hit Gear almost as hard as any of the blows he’d sustained in the fight. He could see, as blurry as his vision was becoming, that the brother across the clearing from him wasn’t exaggerating for once. The tom had been scored deeply across the face, his cerulean eyes reduced to a crimson pulp that hardly stood out against the rest of his battered muzzle.

 

Gear sighed.

“I know. I’ll come to you.”

With as much strength as he could muster, Gear dragged himself forward, forepaws grasping desperately to the earth. The blades of grass felt like razors against his fresh wounds as they brushed gently along his underside. To Gear, the distance between him and his blinded brother might as well have been the same as the distance between him and the moon. The only thing that could possibly stop him from crossing the clearing, though, would be how much time he had left before his own heart gave out. 

Luckily he reached his objective, his body collapsing next to the other, his paw reaching to brush against an uninjured patch of Chain’s pelt.

It wasn’t until Chain felt a paw press weakly into his shoulder that he spoke again, whimpering.

“Is that you, lit’mate…?”

Gear watched as his brother’s head lifted, turning to ‘look’ in his direction. Seeing the state of his kin so closely tied his throat in a tight knot, and it took him a few heartbeats to compose himself before he could respond clearly.

“I’m here, man. It’s just us now.” Gear croaked, his paw moving to grasp his brother’s own. He smiled gently when he could feel Chain’s pawpads clench around his fur, relieved he still had enough life in him to return to gesture.

“You promise..?” Chain’s inquiry was hardly louder than a quail’s heartbeat.

“Yeah, they’re gone.”

Chain’s head thudded gently back onto the grass. “Good... I didn’t want them to hear me complain…”

Gear couldn’t stifle his chuckle, but the laughter was sucked out of him when Chain interrupted to speak again.

“It hurts… So bad, Gear.”

Gear’s throat clenched tighter, and he couldn’t tell whether it was caused by the sympathy he had for his brother, or by the accumulation of his own blood. Regardless of the cause, it made it incredibly hard to respond.

“Just… Hold on a bit longer. We’ll get out of this. We always do.” Gear didn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth, but they felt better than the truth. He figured Chain would understand, anyway; his brother always seemed to be able to read him clearer than anyone else could.

“How…?”

“Magic.”

Gear could hear his brother’s feeble groan, and he shut his eyes, taking in the moment for a second. He couldn’t open them again, though. His eyelids felt too heavy. At least now Chain wasn’t alone in not being able to see.

Gear mrrowed around the blood bubbling in his mouth. “Oh come on, that was funny..” When Chain huffed in response, Gear challenged him.

“Fine, you tell a better one then.”

There was an extended period of silence as his brother seemed to brainstorm, and Gear hoped that this distraction would ease some of the pain he was in. He also hoped that the tom would hurry up; Gear could feel his own body shutting down as the silence dragged on.

Eventually, Chain spoke again, his voice slurred by weakness and distorted by the ringing in Gear’s head.

“What did the mute say to the bird…?” Chain trailed off, his grip on Gear’s paw weakening entirely.

“I don’t know, Chain… What’d he say…?”

“...”

It took an entire minute for Gear to get the joke.

“Good one…” he purred, and let himself go.