Slenderverse One-shots

HABIT x Brian: Good Intentions ⊗ MH x EMH

A03 request: Sequel to HABIT x Brian: Love Bites

His body shuddered as his body grew colder. An abyss surrounded him in every direction and the air seemed to be sucking the oxygen from his lungs with every attempt to breathe. Pain was shooting through him as he tried in vain to stand. Something was out there watching in the dark. He finally got to his knees, the agony of that alone was enough to make what little vision he had fade out. Brian knew he couldn't just stay here. Some primal instinct told him if he did he'd die.

Dragging himself was the only option and even that didn't help his injured spine. Anger flickered through him the further he forced himself to go. He didn't know where he'd been taken but he knew it was Tim's fault. Tim had lied and kept so many things from all of them, things that might've prevented people dying. Brian had tried so hard to believe his closest companion hadn't meant harm by it. He'd done his best to keep him safe and alive... and yet, again and again Tim had chosen Jay. He let him fall from that ledge—and he was now fully convinced if he hadn't slipped Tim would've pushed him off. Traitorous tears pricked his eyes and he tried to pretend they were just from the pain he was in; Tim hadn't even checked if he was alive.

A suffocating dread filled him as his arms finally gave out. His breath wheezed while static began infiltrating his head. Was this it? Was he finally going to die? The idea made his heart pound. Brian knew he'd die eventually but here and now wasn't how he planned to go out. A cough wracked his body and soon enough had turned into a fit. His throat felt raw and he was convinced his lungs were trying to escape.

A shiver ran through him as something grabbed him from behind.

"Gaahhh!" He jolted in the bed, his breaths short and panicky as the memory clung to him. It didn't help when he spotted reflective purple eyes staring down at him from the shadowy bedroom.

Taking a minute to calm down and get his bearings, he sheepishly realized it was HABIT; the entity was still holding his shoulder with one hand and staring at him with more concern than Brian thought he was capable of. "You were dreaming of the ARK again, weren't you."

"...Yeah." He nodded and shifted to sit up, wincing at the dull pain it caused. He'd probably twisted his back weirdly while he was tossing around.

HABIT dropped the hand and left momentarily, returning with a glass of water before picking up the painkillers left on his bedside table. Brian took a few without complaint, though nearly choked on the water as HABIT spoke again. "Who's Tim?"

"...He... He's no one." Brian assumed he'd mumbled stuff in his sleep, trusting HABIT hadn't been in his head.

A feral growl sounded from the shorter figure. "Don't lie to me."

"He was a friend... It just... It didn't end well. Tim..." He trailed off a moment before shaking off the mixture of feelings the man gave him. "Tim left me to die..."

HABIT stayed with him, soothing him until he'd drifted off.

Brian had assumed that was the end of it. HABIT hadn't pushed for further explanations in the days since and things had fallen into their normal pace. At times he noticed the entity seemed to be in deeper thought than usual but he didn't think much of it. HABIT often had plans forming... Usually they were things he'd rather not know about. So, he'd left it alone.

At least until the day he'd been relaxing on the couch watching some game show and saw one of the cats come in, batting around some torn fabric. That in itself wasn't anything unusual, nor was the fact there was dried blood on it. The thing that made his heart stutter was the bright red plaid. Brian tried to tell himself it wasn't from anyone he knew but the more he watched the cat play, the more he thought about the past few days. HABIT had been cheerier than usual after his 'work' and while it wasn't unusual for him to never see the 'guests' they had, he did feel HABIT had been extra secretive about the current one.