AU Collection, Stories, and Fanart

Betrayal: Part Eight (story): Family

Void was silent as he went about his work. The room was filled with the sound of crayon against paper. The lair was quiet for the first time in a long while, giving him a small break from the insanity that is the rest of the group.

Shadow and Sabre were out doing…something. Void was pretty sure he heard something about fire as they ran out. Aster was with Soul and Corruption just outside, training. Which left Lavender with him.

Void finished slicing the apple, tossing the slices into the bowl that already held some berries.

With the addition of Aster and Lavender, they actually had to eat on a schedule. Well, with the Darkness, Void didn't need to waste time eating, along with Soul and Corruption. The two could if they wanted to, but they wouldn't die if they didn't.

If Void has to pinpoint when exactly they started eating on a daily basis, it would be when Sabre and Shadow first joined. At the beginning, the trio didn't see the hide nor hair of Sabre, which made it even more of a surprise when they found out how often Sabre actually had to eat.

Unlike Steves, who had to eat a small meal a day, Sabre's kind had to eat 3 decently sized meals. Shadow got lucky with the Darkness, meaning he only had to eat once a day like the Steves.

It was a wonder Sabre managed to survive so long in his exile. The fact that Sabre's kind had a survival mechanism for starvation wasn't the most fun thing to learn. What species dealt with hunger for so long their bodies demand tons of food and will cannibalize itself if that need isn't met?

Sabre's apparently.

One of the few times Void saw Sabre before he started showing himself was one night. He heard muffled words and allowed his curiosity to get the better of him. The conversation led him to their pantry.

Shadow was there, but what surprised him the most was Sabre. A chest was open, held that way by Sabre, while in his other hand was an apple.

Void, who knew he could easily sneak up on anything, was unnerved when both their heads snapped to look at him the moment he crept closer.

Sabre looked ready to bolt, but Void was blocking the only way out. Shadow merely gave him an exhausted look as he gestured to Sabre. “For the love of Origin, can you tell him to eat more than a simple apple?”

Void remembered being confused. An apple was not the best thing to eat, but it would tide over any Steve.

Except Sabre wasn't a Steve, and was quite prone to starving to death if he didn't eat.

Void, with the help of Shadow, managed to guilt Sabre into eating more than an apple. A simple lie of the meat about to go bad and it would be pointless to waste it was all that was needed.

That was the first time after Sabre's switch to the Darkness that they had a proper talk. Sabre, in between bites, explaining how much he actually needed to consume.

The fact that Sabre was in exile for over a month hung around their heads, but never brought up. There was no way for Sabre to carry that many proper meals, and Void wondered how close Sabre was to actually dying before he found him.

Void had to push down on his anger. Sabre was finally talking and showing himself, the last thing he needed was to scare him away. Sabre gave and gave for the Chromatics and they gave him what was one of the slowest deaths.

It was one thing to be stabbed and bleed out in an hour or two. It was another to feel your body consuming itself just to stay alive. Sabre's very being was built for survival, and Void wondered how many other things they would find out about Sabre's kind.