Trigger warning for smoking, mention of abuse, mention of self harm, and blasphemous talk..
(This is where I start making my own lore. Hope you enjoy :])
-
The next few months went by faster than you wanted them to.
You and Quackity existed in the closest thing you could get to domestic bliss - it didn't take long for you to move into his suite permanently. The days after were filled with things you've dreamed of as a child - slow dancing in the kitchen by the refrigerator light, sitting on the balcony and enjoying the sunset over glasses of wine, you combing through his feathers and him braiding your hair in return... It was something you wouldn't trade for the world.
With Technoblade in prison, Quackity seemed like he was finally comfortable in so many ways that he visibly wasn't before. He laughed, smiled, and joked way more than when you met him. He wore more comfortable clothes with his wings out around the casino. You watched his relationship with his workers become more and more positive - Purpled no longer was passive aggressive with him, Tubbo looked happy when he was working with him, and even Sam would joke around a bit more as time went on. The casino you started in changed drastically as it's biggest threat was finally locked away forever.
Quackity didn't have to go to the prison anymore, as he had promised Dream that he would stop his visits for a long time. As a result, Sam gave you a few weeks off to spend with Quackity.
The two of you spent a lot of time in a garden near the chapel he had Foolish build for Las Nevadas. Quackity never specified who it was meant for, but it was pretty clear based on what you heard before.
You wondered if you two would ever be getting married here.
Was it too early to think about this?
Probably.
You peaked over the book you were reading and looked at Quackity, watching as he sat on the cement and plucked the weeds that infested the flower beds. He was wearing a pair of cargo shorts and a tank top, the fabric of the shirt low enough so his beautiful wings could drape out across the warm concrete. The yellow feathers looked like liquid gold in the desert sun.
You smiled from the hammock he set up for you and looked back down at your book.
This was peaceful and happy. You wished you could stay here forever.
You heard footsteps coming up the stone pathway. You assumed it would be Sam or Foolish, like normal, but you watched Quackity stand up from the corner of your eye and his wings tuck in close to him, closer to him than you've ever seen them.
"What do you want?"
You looked up from your book to see who he was talking to.
The man that stood in front of him was a few inches taller. His hair was black and held out of his face with a white headband, a few loose strands on his forehead. His eyes were bold and dark as they looked down at Quackity, and his shoulders and back were broad and strong. There was a dark purple and shimmering sword on his hip as well as a bow and arrow on his back, yet he was wearing no armor. It was like he came looking for a fight but wanted to be defeated.
"Quackity, I just want ten minutes with you. Please," Sapnap spoke, his voice calm and warm. You didn't expect Quackity's ex-fiance to sound like this. It surprised you a bit.
"I can't. I'm with Y/n right now. Schedule a time through Sam or something," Quackity responded, making no move to sit back down. He looked tense as he stared up at Sapnap, but you couldn't see his face - only his back. You could only imagine what was on his face and Sapnap reached out and grabbed his shoulders, bowing his head forward.
"I'm begging you. I need to ask you something. Please."
You stood up, leaving your book on the hammock before stepping over to Quackity protectively, grabbing onto his arm. "If you need to ask him something, you can ask me too. The business of Las Nevadas involves both of us," you told him, your response making Sapnap release his hold on your boyfriend and step back again.
Sapnap looked down at you two, his eyes dark and unreadable. You looked over at Quackity, his own dark eyes looking hurt and almost confused. You frowned and gave his bicep a small squeeze before looking up at the man who hurt him so.
Sapnap sighed. You swore you saw smoke slip out from his lips.
Quackity sighed as well. "If you really, really need to talk today, you can go up to my office. Foolish will lead you there. I'll meet you in fifteen or so minutes."
Sapnap nodded, and turned to walk into the casino, leaving you and Quackity to stand together and watch. His wings remained folded against his hands, and if you could swear he was shaking beneath your grip.
When the dark haired blaze born disappeared into the casino doors, Quackity turned to face you and pressed a kiss to your forehead before pulling you into a tight hug. You wrapped your arms around his waist and rested your head on his chest - this position was natural. He would hold you for as long as he needed, and you wouldn't object, letting him keep you safe and close to him until he felt better.
"I'm sorry. I hope you understand that this meeting has to be between us. I hope you trust me enough to let this happen. I'm sorry," Quackity murmured, putting his chin on your head and gently swaying with you.
"I trust you, Q. I really do. I'm sorry he came by and ruined what we were doing," You whispered in response, keeping your eyes closed as you listened to the thumping of his heart. The interaction with Sapnap had it racing, and you could hear his deep breaths as he tried to calm himself down.
You weren't lying - you trusted Quackity. You really did. From the moment he stepped between you and Wilbur, you never doubted a word that came from his mouth. He was a brave and honest man you were proud to be held by.
Quackity took a deep breath and let it slowly come out, letting go of you by the end of it. He tilted your chin up and gave you a soft kiss, a hand around your waist to pull you close yet again. You stayed pressed against him until he finally pulled away for a second time.
"I'll be back out in an hour or so. I don't think this'll be short."
-
Quackity, now dressed in his usual Las Nevadas garb, sat down at his desk across from his ex-fiance. He opened his desk drawer and grabbed a pack of cigarettes - something he hadn't touched since he met Y/n. He pulled out a stick and held it forward to Sapnap with the filter facing away from him.
"Would you do the honors, Sapnap?"
Sapnap held out his hand without a word to draw forth a small flame from his palm. Quackity put the cigarette between his lips and leaned forward to the natural light, moving the tip into the fire and inhaling as the smoke was lit. He leaned back into a little chair and let out a puff, the dark smoke filling the air with the pungent smell of nicotine.
"I hate how you still do that, Alex," Sapnap frowned, shaking the flame off his palm and running his warm hand through his hair. "It's bad for you. You saw what that did to Schlatt - I just don't get how you managed to pick up every single bad habit of his you hated."
Quackity chuckled and tapped the ash onto the floor. "You don't get to criticize me on my bad habits when you're the one who's making me smoke again. I haven't touched a smoke since I met Y/n, and now you've rolled back into my life," Quackity responded as he put the cigarette back into his mouth. "I'm in a happy relationship, I'm the leader of my own nation, and two of my biggest enemies are in a prison that's under my watch. I'm the happiest I've been in a long, long time. Why do you think you can come in and intrude on that?"
Sapnap let out a heavy sigh, something Quackity has always hated about him. "Don't say that to me, Alex. You know I'm not here to-"
"Then why are you here, Sapnap?" Quackity interrupted, leaning forward and putting his elbows on the desk. "I created a whole new home for us three, and when you two and George made it clear you wanted nothing to do with me, I moved on and made it a happy place for myself. What the hell could you possibly want with Las Nevadas and I, after all that?"
Sapnap was quiet, looking down at the desktop. Quackity watched his eyes shift to a picture of Y/n, one Quackity took when the two of them went to a nearby beach.
"They're really beautiful, Alex. You're very lucky."
"I know I am."
Sapnap looked at the picture for a moment more before running his hands through his hair again. It must have become a nervous habit for him, and Sapnap must have noticed Quackity staring. He quickly dropped his hands onto the desk, gently drumming on the wood. Quackity's gaze was drawn to his wrists, where he could see a mushroom and smile tattoo poking out from beneath his sleeve.
Quackity felt no remorse for torturing Sapnap's best friend.
He wondered if Sapnap knew yet.
"Well, what did you want to ask?" Quackity asked, annoyed at the empty space between them. If this man came to just sit in his office and feel bad for himself, Quackity wanted to kick him out. He wasn't one for pity parties, especially when they were someone else's. Not after Schlatt would throw one every night and make his vice president feel bad for not easing him of his stress. Not after he would often get hit and grabbed to the point of bruises when he didn't solve every problem that landed in the president's lap.
Sapnap took a deep breath, almost going to run his fingers through his hair again.
"I want to join Las Nevadas."
The request made Quackity choke in his smoke. The fumes caught in his throat as he inhaled in surprise and made his eyes water. In a panic, he put his cigarette down on the desk and stood, hitting his chest as he coughed, going to hold his hands above his head when that didn't work. He took big breaths in and out as he calmed down, waiting for his wheezes to cease before he sat back down and picked up the cigarette yet again.
Old habits die hard.
"You're joking, right?"
Sapnap shook his head, the hair he pulled back shaking from it's form and back onto his forehead. A year ago, the detail would have been enough to make Quackity turn red, but now he just stared at the man he used to be in love with.
"No, Q, I'm not. I'm serious."
Quackity snorted, pressing the cigarette to his lips and taking a long drag. "Why do you think I would even consider letting you into my country after what you did to me?" he asked, the smoke coming out with his speech.
"Because I don't have anyone left," Sapnap admitted, his voice cracking a bit. "It's.. it's Karl. He started losing memory a week or so after you left to start construction on Las Nevadas. I don't know why, and he didn't either, and every day, after we woke up, we would do memory exercises. I would have him list out his whole name, and then my whole name, and then George's, and... and then I would have him talk about Kinoko and what he remembered. I would ask if he remembered the 16th, if he remembered Doomsday, if he remembered what happened to Tommy, and - and every day his responses got shorter and shorter. A couple weeks ago, he finally couldn't remember any of the wars. Last week, he couldn't remember his whole name or George's full name, and a few days ago, he forgot mine completely."
Quackity listened in silence, his scarred mouth pressed into a line with the cigarette clamped into place on the side. One question itched at the back of his mind, but he didn't dare to ask him in fear that the answer would wound him far too deep than he would ever want. Asking would be the equivalent of self harm.
Sapnap waited in the silence, his eyes brimming with tears. He reached up and wiped at them with his sleeve, sniffling a bit. Quackity wondered if the tears still burned him.
"What about George?"
"He's gone, too. I don't know where. He left around last week cuz he said he had something to do and he hasn't come back," Sapnap replied with another sniffle, looking down at his hands in his lap.
Quackity was quiet again, smoking contemplatively.
"You guys told Karl to invite me, didn't you?" Quackity asked softly, letting his hurt edge his voice for the first time in this conversation. It was impossible not to.
Sapnap blinked in mild surprise before nodding, wiping at the tears that had fallen from the blink. "Yeah. He said he would go and invite you, and then you never came. We assumed you didn't want anything to do with us from that point on, so I don't understand why you keep saying that we..."
Sapnap trailed off as he came to the realization that Karl never delivered the invite, and at the same time, Quackity came to the realization that Karl forgot who he was entirely.
"Oh."
Quackity pressed his lips together tightly and nodded, putting his cigarette out on the ashtray before him. "Turns out that you guys didn't leave me like I thought. Karl just simply... forgot."
Sapnap stayed quiet, the air between them so tense it almost felt stifling.
Quackity nodded again as if something else was said. There was a lump in his throat that he was afraid would blow up into tears if he stayed any longer, so he stood and adjusted his tie.
"I'll think about your request, Sapnap, but for now, I'm going to have to ask you to leave my country. I'll get back to you on this when I've come to a decision," Quackity responded stiffly, going to the door and opening it for his ex-fiance.
Sapnap nodded as he stood, going to the door and standing in the doorway for a second. For one horrified second, Quackity was afraid he would hug him, or, worse - kiss him - when Sapnap just lifted a hand and clapped it onto his arm. The simple movement made Quackity wince slightly, which made Sapnap immediately drop his hand.
"I'll see you soon."
"Yeah. See you soon."
-
The door behind you opened, and you quickly pulled yourself away from the book you've been so engrossed in all day. You stood from the couch and went up to Quackity as he stepped into the suite and closed the door behind him, looking utterly dejected and deflated from whatever conversation he just left.
"Quackity? Are you okay?"
Quackity looked at you for a moment before he wrapped his arms around your waist, pulling you into the second hug of the day. But, instead of you leaning into his chest, he leaned his head into your neck, and did something he hasn't done in front of you yet,
He began to cry.
Instead of asking what happened a second time, you wrapped your arms around him and held him close as he unwound in your hold.
-
In a tundra, another man smoked with his father at a kitchen table.
Phil opened a book he had been mailed three months ago, and Wilbur quirked his eyebrow at the leather bound journal.
"What's that?" Wilbur asked, leaning forward a bit to look at the elegant cursive on the page. The penmanship reminded him of his own. It was the same sweeping text that he would use to write notes to send to Phil during his brief presidency and his downfall to an underground nation - he wasn't even sure if he could still write like that. He wouldn't be surprised if the sophistication followed the same downfall as his own grace. He couldn't remember the last time he wrote a formal letter.
"It's Technoblade's will," Phil responded idly, flipping past the first few pages. "He left a few months ago and left this for me to read. I can't quite remember what he said in it, but I remember he mentioned something about three months, so... Here we are."
Wilbur nodded, thinking for a moment before leaning back and taking a drag of his cigarette. "Well, go on. Read it to me," Wilbur waved, putting his boots on the table.
Phil looked at his son before sighing and flipping past the last blank page. He cleared his throat and began to read the will.
"Dear Philza Minecraft," the Angel of Death began, "I am going to the prison to visit Dream and make sure he's alright. If I do not return in a few days, activate the pearl I left in our book club's meeting room. If the pearl is gone, well, it was nice knowing you. Look after the others for me when I'm gone."
Wilbur raised an eyebrow.
Three days? Look after the others?
Phil continued without a beat, not mulling over the words like his son was.
"I left my valuables in a barrel hidden in the top floor's ceiling and a chest under the stone in the corner of that one weird room under the house with the pistons. Distribute them as you see fit."
"He said three days, Phil. He said three days!" Wilbur snapped, waving his cigarette towards Phil and his book. He felt a slight panic in his chest at the idea of Techno being trapped in such a small space for so long. He knew Techno didn't react well to being trapped - it made him feel like prey. He remembered the panic in his voice when he was trapped under a hanging anvil - some of Ghostbur's memories remained with Wilbur, even after revival.
Phil ignored his quip and continued, although Wilbur could see concern knitting itself into Phil's brow.
"Please keep Steve and the foxes well-fed; the wolves can be released into the wilderness. Tell Ranboo and Niki that they're stronger than they know. Tell Tommy that I hope he finds what he's looking for, whatever that is. Phil, I'm glad I met you in this life. Tell the rest of the SMP that having abolished all governments of men, I have ascended to heaven to take on the Kingdom of God. Technoblade."
Wilbur let out a low breath, dark smoke coming out with it. "Technoblade knows how to write a quip. Wow... Taking on the Kingdom of God sounds like an easy goal, especially since the God of this realm currently resides in a small black box," Wilbur chuckled, pressing the cigarette back to his lips as he gazed across at Phil. "I'm glad Techno checked on the one God that matters instead of going up to the real one... hopefully he still remains in his presence. If not, then Dream can just bring him back."
Phil sighed at his son's words before standing and stepping to the coat rack. He grabbed his fuzzy coat from the racks and picked up a lantern from the counter, lighting it with a nearby candle. He slipped the coat over his damaged wings and picked up the lantern.
"I'm going out, Wilbur. Pray to whatever God you want that the pearl in that stasis chamber is still there."