Us. Always.|karlnapity|trans quackity au

Chapter 23: swirling

(a/n: if anyone saw anything about the hiatus, it's officially off because this book is actually keeping me going, and besides that I successfully gaslighted myself into being okiley dokiley 👍)

Tw: death, funerals (warned)

-Bad pov, the present-

I turned on my phone to a worried text from Sapnap.

                                    Tiny fiery gremlin child :-)

Sapnap: dad have you seen Alex?

Dadboyhalo: no, why?

Sapnap: he's missing

Dadboyhalo: what do you mean, missing?

Sapnap: I mean he ran out of the house last night, LITERALLY took off, and hasn't been seen since. 

Dadboyhalo: have you messaged him?

Sapnap: nothing's been seen.

Dadboyhalo: have you contacted the authorities?

Sapnap: it hasn't been 24 hours, I can't.

Dadboyhalo: try messaging Puffy or Eret?

Sapnap: he's not with Puffy, and don't forget that unless we're on the whitelist we can't message Eret.

Dadboyhalo: you're not on the whitelist?

Sapnap: nope but Alex is.

Dadboyhalo: he's probably with them then, he's okay

Sapnap: I hope so...

Sapnap went offline.

Dadboyhalo went offline.

There was a loud knock at the door.

"I'll get it!" Skeppy leapt up, crossing the living room. He gasped.

 "Umm... Bad? I think you need to come to the door, like now."

 I crossed the room, not bothering to look through the windows. Skeppy stepped back.

 "Maia..."

 Her face was unmistakable, even after two and a half decades. It was her. It was my Maiahem. 

She was here.

 "Halo." She smiled, that familiar smile that I'd only seen in my locket for so long.

 No more words were spoken as I wrapped her in a tight hug, tears streaming down my face.

- Quackity pov, the present -

Eret and I were headed back to the palace, just talking about general stuff. We both know how to avoid a subject, and that's what we're doing. Avoiding.

Dodging it.

We both know that one event that changed my life, and it bought us so much closer together. They don't know everything, and I pray to Prime they never will, but what they do know lead to so many incredible things.

We arrived there, sitting down in the common room. Eret picked up my now-repaired binder, I put it in my ender chest, and we sat in silence. I checked my phone, looking through and swiping off various notifications. 

-Karl pov-

I had been staring at our groupchat for a long time, reading through it carefully, looking for anything any of us did wrong. I hadn't really slept and I hadn't really eaten, and had been nervously shapeshifting ever since Alex took off. 

Sapnap had been juggling asking everyone else where he was, comforting me, and doing his own worried pacing- his hair spitting embers. I found this strange. He wasn't angry with me or Alex, but he was clearly angry at something. He just kept repeating "dammit" under his breath. He hadn't slept or eaten much either.