Dark grunted as he hoisted himself into the attic, having to use a regular, metal folding stairs since the attic didn't have it's own foldable ladder for some reason no one knows.
He kept the trapdoor open so that light could enter the dust filled area, the light of the attic being busted. It really was a crappy place, but at least it was big enough to keep still wanted trash that has been forgotten over time of every single Iplier ego safe.
Why was Dark in the attic?
Well, since he was such a workaholic, he tended to sit in his special chair, hunched over his desk while writing paper work at least twelve hours a day without any breaks (unless someone forced it upon him). Doing only that activity causes him to get quite some back complaints. Edward has told him thousands of times to take more breaks and sit up straight, but when you're so engulfed in your work, you just completely forget about what people have told you and you go back to your usual position.
He even felt it rather painfully in his back when he had to tried to pick up one of the boxes on the attic.
"Goddamnit..." Dark grunted as he put the box back down. Hesitating for just a small bit, he sacrificed his very well kept pants and bent down to sit on his knees on the dusty wood underneath him.
He leaned over the box in the least painful way he could, and started digging through it.
In the box sat all kinds of stuff that has been long forgotten, unless someone saw it again. Normally it stood all the way in the back of the attic, but someone must have came up here somewhere in the past and dragged it all the way to the front.
Dark frowned a bit as he found it rather unpleasant to dig through the box. It should be fairly easy to find what he was looking for, but the box seemed way more filled up than he could remember.
There were pictures, saved as treasured memories between Celine, Damien, Wilford and Mark. There were all sorts of objects that had to do with every single one of them. Wilford's Colonel hat, for instance.
Dark only got negative energy from seeing all of this. In the beginning of his existence, he could feel exactly how Damien and Celine had felt when they disappeared. It was so painful. And even now, ten years later, it still hurt, sometimes.
When he accidentally slid a finger over Celine's crystal ball that she used for seeing people's predictions in life, it lit up a bit with a dark green light. Dark came to the conclusion that that was because he still held power of Celine with him, and just dug further. The faster he found the thing he was looking for, the quicker he could leave the box to it's own devices and leave the attic.
Right when Dark was about to stop searching the box, he found something else.
It was an old newspaper.
It read;
The downfall of the mayor
Upon inspections of the disappearance of mayor Damien Fischbach, the local detective, Abe, has clarified that the mayor has passed away. Abe refuses to speak of more, and thus is the cause of the mayor's death unknown.
There was a ton more on the page, but Dark didn't read further as he saw the picture of Damien. But it was not some random picture of Damien that were meant to be put on things like this. Either the writer of the article had dug far too deep into information of Damien, or Abe had told them more about Damien that no one was supposed to know.
Because the picture in the article was of Damien and Wilford. Back when he still was known as the colonel. They were standing way too close to each other in order to have the both of them being trapped in a deep, passionate kiss.
Underneath the picture was writing a bit, too;
Mayor Fischbach was known to be secretive, but that was declared him being a good mayor. He had kept his personal life more than far away from everyone else, and we now understand why. Upon further inspections, mayor Fischbach had been having a rather close relationship with the local colonel, William J Barnum.
Dark remembered seeing Wilford so distressed when Damien and Celine were gone. He had to watch from a mirror first, but he had been so fast to switch places with Abe's temporary partner and he had chased after Wilford, wanting to comfort him. Dark remembered all of Damien and Celine's pains about the fact that they had died so suddenly. They still wanted to do so much before they went...
It all just hurt so, so much. Way too much.
Before Dark realised it, his breathing had picked up, and he was trying to hold back tears, sobbing every now and then as he just stared at the picture on the front of the newspaper.
"Darky, have you found the ca-"
Wilford peeked into the attic, but immediately shut up when he heard a sob escape Dark. He pulled himself into the attic, and sat down next to Dark.
"What's wrong, darling?" He asked, wrapping an arm around Dark as he looked down at the newspaper in the hands of his lover.
"Oh..."
Dark was aware of Wilford's presence, but he seemed to be in a small trance, just staring at the article in his hands. He only came back to Earth when a teardrop landed on the paper, and he felt Wilford wrap a second arm around him and pull him closer for a comforting hug.
Dark allowed him to do so, dropping the paper and leaning against his partner, resting his head against the madman's shoulder as he properly started crying, not holding back anymore.
"Shh..... It's okay." Wilford mumbled in a soft voice as he gently rubbed the side of Dark's arm, pulling him just a little closer, sighing. "I know it hurts..."
Dark nodded slightly as he laid one hand on Wilford's chest. He felt safe in his arms. Safe enough to show the man these kind of emotions when it was just the two of them.
"It's all in the past, we can't change that." Wilford said, pressing a small kiss on Dark's head before continuing. "But we can focus on the present and the future. We should be happy that you are here now. I know I am really happy about that."
"You're only saying that because I'm Damien and Celine mixed together into one monstrosity..." Dark mumbled in between sobs, calming down just a small bit.
"I'm not. I promise." Wilford said. "I do not care if you are them or if you're not. I will love you no matter what, even if Damien and Celine would have never existed. If Mark decided to create you as some kind of... I don't know, some cheesy lead singer of a boy band? Then I would have still loved you."
Dark weakly scoffed at the idea of him being someone like Wilford just described.
"And you are not a monstrosity." Wilford continued, leaning his head on Dark's. "You're a wonderful, hardworking man that everyone loves. People look up to you because of the way you make sure they are okay, and people respect you for being able to hold a household as big as this one we have together happy and well. Someone that'd be a monstrosity would never be able to do all the things you do, and especially would not look as good as you do." He managed to put a small flirt in there.
As Wilford spoke, Dark had slowly stopped sobbing, listening closely to his partner's words.
"Yandere would never come to you every morning to ask you to get her hair fixed for the day if you were a monstrosity, or Eric would never trust you this much to go to you for hugs if he really needs them." Wilford reminded Dark of the teenager egos around the house. "A monstrosity is someone that's an absolute mess both mentally and physically, and someone that can never get things done properly or even done in the first place. But look at what you are doing every single minute of the day! You do way too much work to make sure everyone is okay and everything is in order, that you never manage to catch a break."
Dark sighed as he listened.
"Do you understand what I'm trying to say?" Wilford asked.
Dark nodded his head, making Wilford smile softly.
"Shall we go downstairs and cuddle some more there?"
Another nod.
Wilford carefully lifted Dark's upper body, making him quit leaning against him.
Dark immediately dried his eyes, and when he looked back up he saw Wilford make his way all the way to the back of the attic.
The madman bent down, and picked up what Dark had been looking for all along.
"The cane was left back here!" He said, making his way back over to his boyfriend.
"Oh for fuck's sake....." Dark sighed loudly, realising he had searched the box all for nothing.
Wilford returned to his lover and hopped back onto the foldable staircase he and Dark had used to enter the attic, going back to the first floor of the house.
Dark followed suit, and accepted the cane when Wilford gave it to him, immediately using it to stand straight and not hunch over, needing to get rid of his back complaints in some way.
Wilford held the hand Dark wasn't holding the cane with, and lead him to their bedroom, where they would sit on the bed and just cuddle.
Anything to make Dark feel just a little better.