smile dont hate me please
this is rather short, only 1.03k words but its a banger imho.
no prompt only angst im sorry smile
cw for death and mentions of war
fic title from matt maltese - as the world caves in
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it's been hours since the initial warning, days since the news broke, and they're only just now doing it, doing what they need to do before the world ends and they don't get to. he doesn't feel bad about doing it. he feels nothing at all, actually. as long as he gets to stay with travis. they'd left their friends to go to the tallest building. their final goodbyes to them have been said. it's all over and done with. ted cried for the first time, noah screamed, cried, smashed some of his possessions, charlie didn't crack a single pun, too busy staring at the ground emptily, though cooper knows he wanted to cry as well, carson and josh never left their room, never left their bed, schlatt decided to spend his time facetiming with wilbur, he'd called joko, sam, logan, and mason to apologise and say goodbye, and now it's done.
cooper's feet hurt, rocks lacing the pavement digging into his bare feet, making him bleed, but he ignores it. he's been walking for hours with travis, but it's worth it. it's all worth it, in the end. the sky is grey, furthering a depressing atmosphere, but he trudges forward, into the abandoned building at the edge of the city and beginning the ascent up the stairs. travis pants, his hand gripping cooper's wrist lightly, and cooper can tell he's just as scared as he himself is.
they reach the top of the staircase, fling open the door to the rooftop and make their way to the edge. it'll be easy for them to just jump off, avoid their inevitable demise, but they don't.
they're staying until the end.
the sirens had gone off just before noon. it starts in maybe only fifteen minutes. they have only a few minutes to say their final goodbyes to each other before they're erased from existence entirely, the human race will go extinct and no one will remember them.
it's okay, though. they have each other.
travis sniffles, freshly painted fingernails leaving a streak across his button up shirt, eyes reddened from the weed they'd smoked before they'd left. "we're going out in style, baby!" travis had said as they'd gotten dressed, a joke and yet not a joke at the same time. "coopie?" he murmurs quietly, voice soft and yet so stressed, cooper wishes he could make travis feel better, but he can't. he looks up from picking at his fingers, giving him a questioning glance. "d'you think.. maybe in another life, we could-"
"yeah, trav. in another life." he responds before travis can finish, "i'll find you in every life, i promise you that. doesn't matter how, doesn't matter when, i'll find you." travis swings his feet over the side of the building, tilting his head up just as it starts to rain. raindrops splatter across their faces, cooling their flushed skin, but it's no use. they'll be dead in a few moments anyways.
the sirens ring louder and louder. cooper wants to leave for a brief moment, wants to take travis down, down underneath the ground, he wants to live, but he banishes those thoughts. nothing will be worth living for, anyways. their friends and family will be dead, their fans will be dead, everyone they looked up to will be dead. he wants travis to survive more than anything, but he knows he can't leave travis with the knowledge that he didn't survive, or else the poor boy might just end himself.
it's unfair, cooper thinks to himself, unfair how they can't have their happy ending. unfair how no one can have their happy ending, all because of a stupid war and an atomic bomb inevitably being dropped on their hometown. it's unfair how their shitty, racist president gets to hide in a bunker underground, a coward gets to hide whilst his people dies.
cooper hopes he dies as well.
"travis, i need you to know. i love you so much." the sirens are blaring, blasting in his ears, surrounding him, he needs to shout for travis to hear him. something glints in the sky, far away but fast approaching, and he grins emptily, looking back at his boyfriend. he intertwines their fingers, presses closer to him, watches as the atomic bomb falls faster. "i made a promise and i'll keep that promise. always and forever, trav."
travis smiles back, though there are tears streaking down his cheeks, falling onto their conjoined hands. he reaches one hand up, gently cups cooper's cheek, kisses him softly, pouring all his emotion into that one kiss. "i love you too, cooper, always. i'll find you again, ok?" he says, and cooper nods, unwilling to wipe the tears slipping down his own face, surging in to kiss him again and again. he can hear the whistle from the bomb, he can see it in his peripheral vision, he can taste salty tears in his mouth as he squeezes his eyes shut, becoming more and more despondent.
this is the end, is it not?
the bomb makes a loud impact. it's an intense ball of fire - equal to 15,000 tonnes of tnt, he vaguely recalls ted mentioning it.
it's so hot. he continues to kiss travis even as his skin melts away, revealing muscle and bones, continues to kiss travis as the world caves in around them, continues to kiss travis as he begins losing consciousness, begins fading from the world. he can tell travis is, too, they're experiencing their final moments. his eyes flutter closed, blinking open again. he's no longer afraid - he's got travis with him. "i lo- love you," he manages to murmur before his eyes close for the final time, before he takes his last breath, before the atomic bomb gets the best of them both.
and even if he couldn't hear travis say it back, he knows travis loves him.
he knows it.
after all, cooper's the one he was willing to welcome death with.
and travis is the one cooper was willing to welcome death with.
there is no happy ending for them in this life, but at least they had each other.
at least they were together in their final moments.