Work Text:
Copper. The scent of copper flooded his nose, a smell so strong that it threatened to choke him. It didn’t matter anyway as he couldn’t breathe. His lungs had ceased to function and the ringing in his ears wouldn’t stop. His whole body shook–it had never felt more cold. It was sticky as well, drenched as he was in Carlo’s blood.
He held his best friend in his arms as the life drained out of him. Romeo had always thought it took someone ages to bleed out, but Carlo’s light was fading before his very eyes.
“D-Don’t…don’t leave me.” Carlo pleaded, honeyed brown eyes unfocused as he tried his best to gaze up at Romeo’s face.
Romeo could barely see him through the fog of his own tears. “I won’t.” he promised. “I never will. Carlo, please. H-Hold on.”
There was no holding on. Carlo wouldn’t survive this. Half of his body was missing, his legs having been pulverized. His left arm had been entirely torn off and Romeo wasn’t sure where it had gone. He had taken his shirt and his jacket off to stem the bleeding as best he could, but he knew it wasn’t helping.
They were alone. They were so far away. Romeo couldn’t call for help. What was he supposed to do? He couldn’t just leave Carlo, but he couldn’t allow him to bleed out either.
It didn’t matter. He knew Carlo was going to die. They both knew it.
“R-Ro…meo…”
Romeo’s breath caught in his chest as he swallowed down a sob. “Yeah?”
Carlo’s last words were not verbal, but they didn’t need to be. Romeo read them on his lips. It would be the last time Carlo ever said those words to him.
“I-I love you too…” he answered in reply. Because he did. He loved Carlo so very much.
Carlo’s eyes had closed by this point, his body too weak to keep them open any longer. His face was so impossibly pale, making his freckles stand out like stars in the night sky. Even dying, Carlo was beautiful.
Romeo leaned in and brushed a kiss to his lips, finding them to be cold as ice. Even in the dead of winter, Carlo’s lips had always been warm.
By the time he pulled back, Carlo’s chest had ceased its movements. His fingers uncurled from Romeo’s own, and when Romeo pressed a hand over his heart, there was no pounding.
Carlo was dead.
“No…” Romeo whispered, curling further around Carlo’s body. “No. No! NO!!”
The scream that was wrenched from him echoed off the walls of the Devil’s Pit, loud enough to shake the very foundation of the mines they were in. But Romeo wasn’t finished. He kept screaming. He screamed at how unfair it was, he screamed at how much it hurt, he screamed and screamed and screamed until his voice cracked and he choked from how hoarse his voice had become.
He couldn’t breathe. There were black spots in his vision. He looked down at Carlo.
Oddly, in that moment, he thought about what people said about their loved ones looking at peace after they died. Carlo did look peaceful enough, if one was only looking at his face. The rest of him looked like it had been ripped apart and shredded.
Romeo thought he should go and find his arm. He didn’t know why he thought that, he just did. It would give him something to do. He promised he wouldn’t leave, after all.
Everyone else had left Carlo. His mother had left him when he was very young, though Romeo knew it wasn’t her choice. She hadn’t chosen to die. But Geppetto had certainly chosen to leave Carlo when he abandoned him and then actively chose not to participate in his son’s life.
Even Lea had left. Romeo knew Lea was struggling lately, distancing herself from the Monads and losing sight of the things that were important to her. So, he and Carlo tried their best to survive on their own.
They had done a pretty shit job of it considering Carlo was dead now.
But just because everyone else had left Carlo didn’t mean that Romeo would. Not even now that he was dead. Romeo would stay right here with him.
“I won’t leave you.” he spoke, though he wasn’t sure if the words came out or not. He stroked over Carlo’s pale, cold cheek. “I won’t leave you, Carlo. Not now, not ever.”
He wasn’t sure how long he had been sitting there, but he thought it was a long time. He drifted in and out of consciousness between bouts of sobbing. He was hungry and cold and so, so tired. His body wouldn’t stop shivering, but he stayed right where he was, sitting on the cold ground beside Carlo’s body.
Eventually, he heard footsteps, but even then, he didn’t move. He didn’t even turn around. If the alchemists were back and they wanted to kill him, then so be it. He would be reunited with Carlo if he died. Perhaps it would be better that way.
“Romeo?”
That voice. Now Romeo knew he must be hallucinating. Lea had abandoned them both, so what would she be doing here in the Devil’s Pit looking for them?
The footsteps behind him grew louder and faster and before Romeo knew it, Lea had dropped by his side. He could register her screaming, asking him what had happened, but Romeo couldn’t answer. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t speak. All he could do was sit there and cling to Carlo’s corpse.
His corpse. Because that was what he was now, wasn’t it? No longer a living body, but a corpse. A body that had once been so full of life. But no longer.
Soon enough, Carlo would go stiff. His skin would start to decompose, his bones would become exposed.
“What happened?!” Lea was screaming, tears spilling down her cheeks. “Romeo! Answer me!”
“Lea.” Another voice. Romeo hadn’t even heard Gemini approach, but he didn’t need to turn to look at the man to know it was him. “I think he’s in shock.”
Romeo wasn’t even blinking, his eyes locked on Carlo in his arms, fingers stroking through his blood-matted hair.
“Hey, pal.” Gemini said, kneeling beside him and putting a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Why don’t we get outta here, okay? We should get you home and cleaned up.”
“I can’t leave Carlo.” Romeo answered, his voice as quiet as a whisper.
“We won’t leave him.” Gemini promised soothingly. “We’re gonna take him with us.”
“Okay.” Romeo replied, as if he had just agreed to moving a stuffed animal from one room to another. With Gemini’s help, Romeo got to his feet while still managing to keep Carlo in his arms. He stumbled forward, but Lea and Gemini bracketed him from both sides, helping to keep him upright. Lea’s eyes never left Carlo’s face, keeping one arm looped around Romeo’s as they traveled back through the mines.
“We’re going home now, Carlo.” Romeo told the corpse in his arms. “I’m not leaving you.”
***
Eventually, Romeo did have to let go of Carlo, but only physically. His body had to go to a mortician, after all. Or, that’s where Romeo assumed it was going to prepare for the funeral. Lady Antonia was arranging it. The ceremony, if you could call it that, passed in a blur. Romeo felt like he was living in his own personal nightmare since the moment Carlo had died. He couldn’t focus on anything. All he could do was stand there over Carlo’s grave in his suit, holding an umbrella as Lea leaned against him and sobbed, smelling strongly of alcohol.
Geppetto never showed. Romeo hadn’t expected him to and he wasn’t sure he felt strongly about it one way or another. Carlo wouldn’t have wanted his father to show up anyway, would he? No. He would have. He would only say that he didn’t want to ever see Geppetto again, even though he never meant that. He had always wanted his father’s attention and praise and Geppetto couldn’t even give it to him in death.
The worst part, Romeo felt, was when he had to return to the room he shared in the apartment with Carlo. For once, Lea was home, but she had her own bedroom and she hardly ever came out of it. It seemed she had stopped taking missions as a Stalker for the time being, and she wasn’t eager to train Romeo anymore either. Romeo was left to sit numbly in his room, hugging Carlo’s pillow to his chest at night until he couldn’t hold back the tears anymore.
He tried his best to muffle his sobs with the pillow, but he knew Lea still heard them. She would give him looks of concern each morning. Romeo always thought that if he had a mother, she would look at him the way Lea did right now when she was worried about him. Lea was the closest thing to a parent that Romeo ever had, but she didn’t know how to support him in a time like this. She was just as lost as he was.
Sometimes, when Romeo slept peacefully enough to dream, he would see Carlo again. He wished he could remain in those dreams for the rest of his life and never wake up. He had considered taking his own life to be with Carlo again, but where would that leave Lea? He couldn’t do that to her.
The dreams were all Romeo had, for now at least.
Strangely, the Carlo he saw in his dreams didn’t have his Carlo’s brown eyes. They were a beautiful shade of blue instead. In fact, they were startlingly blue. Romeo had always been captivated by Carlo’s honeyed eyes, but he found that Dream Carlo also had very beautiful eyes.
Dream Carlo also had more freckles than his Carlo had. His hair was slightly darker. He smiled less, looking more serious, but when he did look right at Romeo and smile? When he did that, it was the same as when Carlo would give him his biggest, most genuine smile. Those were the best smiles, because Romeo knew Carlo meant them with all his heart.
In his dreams, Romeo would walk the streets of Krat with Dream Carlo, but even this version of the city he lived in was different from reality. It looked like war had been waged here. The streets were crumbling, the shops and homes broken into, wreckage everywhere. But it was in the process of being fixed up. There were signs of life all over; citizens coming out of hiding and rebuilding the city. Dream Carlo helped with the efforts, and Romeo followed along and did his best as well.
Dream Carlo had said it was because of him. Krat had a future because of him.
Romeo wasn’t sure what that meant. How could the future of Krat have been saved because of just one person?
***
They say time heals all wounds. They also say that grief doesn’t stick to a particular timeframe. Everyone grieves differently. Romeo wasn’t sure how he grieved. He wasn’t sure how long it would take him to heal, if he ever did.
He visited Carlo’s grave every single day for the first couple of months. He always brought him flowers. He always sat and talked to him. Some days, he wound up falling asleep against the headstone.
He found it to be comforting.
Lea never joined him at Carlo’s grave. In fact, Romeo hardly ever saw her leave the house at all. It was probably because her health had taken a toll for the worse lately. At first, Romeo assumed it was because of all the drinking she was doing, but then it was confirmed that she had contracted the Petrification Disease. She told Romeo to stay away from her at all costs, but he insisted he didn’t care. Besides, someone needed to take care of her. He didn’t get sick often, so maybe he would have some kind of special immunity to the Petrification Disease as well (he knew this was bullshit, but he needed to feel useful or he would go out of his mind).
If Romeo couldn’t live for Carlo anymore, then he would live for Lea. He would take care of her. Besides, he had always been the most level-headed out of the three of them. Both Lea and Carlo were quick to anger and mostly irrational. Their skills as Stalkers were what got them out of many sticky situations, but Romeo had always been their voice of reason.
However, Romeo was becoming more and more reckless as of late. He took on missions that were too difficult for Lea to tackle. Krat was going to hell and Stalkers were needed more than ever. At least it earned him enough money to live by.
The crunching of leaves startled him from his thoughts and Romeo turned to see a figure approaching. His blood ran cold at the sight of Giuseppe Geppetto standing before him in a coat and hat, looking probably as awkward as Romeo felt.
At first, Romeo wanted to scream at him to get away from here. How dare he show up now after months of not coming to see his own son’s grave. He hadn’t even shown up to Carlo’s funeral, after all.
Geppetto, seeming to read Romeo’s mind, raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. “I know you’re not pleased to see me here and I apologize for that. But you must understand, I hadn’t been ready to come and see Carlo before now.”
Romeo deflated some. It wasn’t his job to tell someone how to grieve the loss of a son. Geppetto had every right to take all the time he needed to process Carlo’s death. “No. I understand.” he said, bowing his head. “I’m…sorry for your loss.”
“And I am sorry for yours.” Geppetto said, moving closer to stand beside Romeo and gaze at the grave. “I know how close you were to my son.”
Romeo wasn’t sure if that was true. He didn’t think Geppetto had known that he and Carlo were lovers. He didn’t think he knew just what they meant to each other.
“Carlo always spoke fondly of you.” the old man continued, folding his hands in front of him.
Romeo couldn’t say the same. Carlo had never said one nice thing about his father in all of the years he had known him. Romeo had always urged him to be nicer, to be happy he had any family to begin with. But Carlo had always been a powder keg ready to blow.
“I’m…working on a project.” Geppetto barrelled on. “Testing the limits of puppets that are powered with human Ergo.”
Romeo looked sideways at him. “What do you mean?” Leave it to Geppetto to awkwardly start up a conversation about puppets while standing over his dead son’s grave.
Geppetto was quiet for a long time and all Romeo could hear was the quiet ticking of his pocket watch in his vest. It sounded so impossibly loud, ticking in time with the blonde’s heart. “Carlo never knew the fate of his mother. I never got around to telling him the truth.”
Romeo blinked. He opened his mouth to ask what Carlo’s mother had to do with any of this when Geppetto continued unprompted.
“She had died at the hands of the alchemists as well.” he told him. “Her Ergo was implanted in a puppet, which then had an awakened ego. She remembered who she was. She wanted to get back to Carlo–she asked to be returned to her child.”
Romeo’s blood froze in his veins, his hazel eyes widening. “What?”
Once again, Geppetto continued as if he hadn’t heard him. “I was unable to rescue her from the clutches of Simon Manus. She was experimented on to try and unlock the secrets of immortality. Eventually, there was nothing left. Her body was destroyed. But, it had proven a point; death is not the end.”
Romeo’s heart was now beating much faster than the pocket watch in Geppetto’s vest. “What are you trying to tell me? That we…that we can bring Carlo back?”
It was ludicrous. Absolute insanity. People didn’t just come back to life. Carlo was dead and he was never coming back no matter how hard Romeo wished he would.
“I could implant his Ergo into a puppet body.” Geppetto explained. “I’m working on a prototype heart–one that will hold a person’s personality and memories. My first experiment was a failure, but that was due to my own failings. I needed to have a stronger heart.”
Cold, steel blue eyes met Romeo’s hazel ones as Geppetto stared up at him. For some reason, when Romeo looked at him, he felt impossibly afraid. There was something not right behind those eyes. “You’re telling me…you think you can bring Carlo back to life?”
Geppetto was quiet for a minute. Then, without warning, he turned away from the grave, his back to Romeo. “If you want to learn more, you’re welcome to come by my home. I’ll explain everything to you there.”
Just like back in the mines, Romeo found that he couldn’t move. He was frozen to the spot, forced to watch as Geppetto walked further and further away until he was just a speck in the distance.
***
Romeo had been to the Geppetto Manor before, but it had been many years since he had last gone. There were even more puppets here now than there ever had been before. They tended to everything from the yard work to the house keeping. There was even a butler that took Romeo’s coat once he stepped into the foyer.
The house seemed even emptier than it had been when Carlo had lived here. Sure, Carlo hadn’t lived here full time since he had been very young, but he did visit from time to time up until he reached the age of about fourteen. That was the last time Romeo had come here as well.
Romeo was led up the stairs, passing many framed portraits of the Geppetto family, and so many of Carlo that he had never seen before. Had Geppetto had these in storage and he only moved them out after Carlo’s passing?
The door to Geppetto’s study was thrown open and the puppet butler gave a sweeping bow before ushering Romeo inside and closing the door behind him.
“Romeo,” Geppetto greeted, standing from his chair. “Come in, my boy.”
A chill raced down Romeo’s spine at the nickname. Something about it didn’t sit well with him, but he did come further into the room, sinking into a plush chair at the front of Geppetto’s desk when urged to do so. “Hello, sir. I hope you’re doing well.”
Geppetto took his seat once more, his hands folded neatly on top of his desk. “I have been very busy.”
Not the answer Romeo had expected to hear, but he really should have known better. Geppetto had always been an eccentric fellow. The whole city knew that. “With…with what we talked about?”
“Yes.” Geppetto answered, rifling through his drawers and producing a large, rolled up sheet of paper. He unfurled it atop his desk, using some of the many objects that cluttered the room to help hold down the ends. “These are the schematics for my newest puppet.”
Romeo leaned in further and gazed down at the drawings scrawled on the paper. For the most part, he didn’t understand what he was looking at, but that was to be expected. He was no technician, and he certainly wasn’t a genius like Geppetto was. However, he did recognize the face staring back at him, and his heart plummeted into his stomach.
Those blue eyes. He had seen them before. It was the Carlo from his dreams.
But why had Geppetto colored the puppet’s eyes to be blue if he was supposed to be Carlo? Did he not remember the color of his own son’s eyes?
He had been about to ask, but Geppetto cut him off, sighing exaggeratively.
“The new prototype heart won’t be ready for another couple of months.” he announced, gesturing to what Romeo assumed were parts of the heart on his desk. It didn’t resemble a heart at all, not to Romeo. “But more experiments need to be done before it can be perfected. I would like to fit another puppet with a similar heart to see if it takes before trying the procedure with Carlo’s Ergo. There is only one chance to get this right, after all.”
Again, warning bells were going off in Romeo’s mind. He thought then that Geppetto might be off his rocker, and that he should run. Was he planning on using him as the prototype to bring Carlo back?
But, would that really be so bad? Romeo had said he would give up anything to bring Carlo back. He had even been ready to take his own life to end his suffering. Anything was better than living in a world without Carlo.
“And…you want me to undergo your experiment?”
Geppetto wanted to transfer his Ergo into a puppet body. He wanted to use Romeo as the prototype for his newest invention. But if he succeeded, it would mean a new form of immortality. It would mean that death wasn’t the end.
It would mean that Romeo could have Carlo back.
“Yes.” Geppetto confirmed, gazing at Romeo as if he held all of the secrets of the universe. “Don’t worry, dear boy. I’m not going to kill you for your Ergo. I know the life you live is dangerous enough, and we have time. I’m simply asking you to give your body over to me when you do meet your end.”
What a strange thing to say. It was as if Romeo was promising to donate his body to science. In fact, that was exactly what he was being asked to do.
“And…I would keep my personality and my memories?” Romeo asked, sounding all too eager to agree.
“Yes.”
Silence filled the room as Romeo looked back down at the schematics on Geppetto’s desk. That face. Those eyes. Those freckles. Those lips. He could see them again. He could be with Carlo again. They could have a second chance at life.
“I’ll do it.”
After all, who wouldn’t give their life for the one they loved?
***
He had gotten too careless. He had allowed himself to slip up, to make one stupid mistake. He had taken on a mission that had seemed all too easy and it had turned out to be a trap. Missions like that always were. After all, it had been a trip to the zoo that had gotten him into this predicament–albeit it wasn’t a normal trip to a normal zoo. Romeo was chasing after the rumors that the alchemists had taken over the zoo and were performing experiments on the animals there. Turns out, those rumors had all been true.
What he hadn’t been counting on was Arlecchino.
Romeo had grown up on the story of how Lea had defeated the Blood Artist; the puppet with the awakened Ego of a murderous serial killer. She had driven nine blades into him, a feat no other Stalker in all of Krat had managed to do. She had been young at the time, and that fight had been what earned her the moniker of The Legendary Stalker.
Romeo just wished he had been half as good as Lea had been back then. Maybe if he had been, he wouldn’t be getting tortured right now.
He could remember fighting the mad puppet at the zoo. He remembered having a scythe, much like the one he wielded, embedded into his right shoulder. That laugh. He knew that laugh before he had ever even heard it for the first time. He knew this would be the puppet that ended his life.
In the end, he had been no match for Arlecchino. It wasn’t that he was trying all that hard either. Funny that when he needed to fight for his life, his instincts failed him.
Geppetto’s words rang through his mind. Maybe he should just let it happen. Then he could be reunited with Carlo sooner.
He thought he wouldn’t mind the torture, but really, who didn’t mind being tortured? Arlecchino was very practiced in this matter and was able to keep him awake, no matter how desperately Romeo tried to lose consciousness. He hated him for it. His face was slapped whenever he felt himself blacking out, and those red, dead eyes were in front of him again.
His arms had been sawed off, but before he could even blink, they were being replaced with puppet parts. Arms that were much too short, but were somehow functional. Romeo could move his fingers and Arlecchino was delighted by this. He called it art, though Romeo failed to see how. Romeo only had experience in theater and music, after all. He hadn’t ever been much of an artist when it came to sculptures or painting.
Arlecchino had promised to paint with Romeo’s blood. In fact, he had drained the blood from the stumps that remained of his arms while the blonde screamed out in pain. When the screaming became too much, a metal cage was clamped around Romeo’s head. It came with a fitted, metal mask, the eye holes too small to see much of anything out of.
Romeo didn’t know how long he had been tortured, but he got a bit of reprieve once Arlecchino strung him up in the rose garden at the Rose Estate. He knew it was symbolic; Arlecchino knew everything about Lea’s past. He had chosen this place on purpose. But it wounded Romeo just as much as it would Lea.
The school wasn’t as Romeo remembered it, not that he had seen much of it in his half-conscious state. But what he had seen had been enough. Monsters roamed the halls, screaming their lungs out and begging to be killed. There was blood everywhere. The rooms were trashed. Whatever happened here, it had been devastating.
Romeo wondered if Sophia was alright, but he thought that seemed like a pretty irrational thing to worry about when there were literal corpses lining the halls. There was no way anyone had survived this.
At least in the rose garden, Romeo didn’t have to look at the monsters. Sure, his arms felt like they would rip from their freshly made ports in his shoulders, but it was much better than being inside of the school that he had once called home. Out here, he could remember all of the memories he shared with Carlo, gazing out at the snow beneath him. He could pretend the fountain of blood was crystal blue with water once more, and he and Carlo would run through it and get in trouble just like they did every summer.
The bench in the corner of the garden was somewhere that he and Carlo often hid away. They would steal kisses when no one was watching. They had even gotten hot and heavy out here before, practically shoving hands down each other’s trousers while they hid in the rose bushes. Carlo would always tell him to be more quiet, but Romeo couldn’t help it. Not with the way Carlo’s hand was working him.
Romeo almost smiled at the memory. Almost.
He could feel the life slowly draining out of him. He knew he wasn’t making it out of here alive. He just hoped Lea wouldn’t show up. That was the entire purpose of Arlecchino kidnapping him, after all; it was all to lure Lea here and exact his revenge.
Romeo’s entire body was numb by this point. He was frozen, the winds whipping past him, blowing the strips of fabric that Arlecchino had used to tie him up in the archway. His blood had stopped dripping by this point, but he might as well not have had any blood left at all. That was how absolutely frozen his body felt.
He closed his eyes while he could, finally allowing himself to drift off into blessed sleep.
The sounds of fighting woke him. Romeo cracked his eyes open, peering through the mask on his face at the ground that seemed so impossibly far away from him.
Lea had come to rescue him. She was fending off Arlecchino. By the way she was fighting, one couldn’t tell she was inches away from death herself, but Romeo noticed it in her slightly sluggish reaction time and the way she kept feigning to her left.
But she wasn’t alone.
At first, Romeo thought he was hallucinating. He had simply lost too much blood and his mind was conjuring up things he wanted to see to comfort him in his time of passing. Surely that’s why Carlo was down on the ground fighting by Lea’s side.
Except it wasn’t Carlo. Not the Carlo he had grown up with, anyway.
This Carlo had blue eyes.
Just like it had the first time Romeo had seen Geppetto’s schematics all those months ago, Romeo’s heart stuttered in his chest. Carlo was alive? That meant Geppetto had succeeded. He had brought him back to life.
But why had Geppetto gone ahead and resurrected Carlo without first testing the prototype heart on Romeo? He had made him promise, after all. Romeo had gone and gotten himself in this situation because he was carelessly throwing his life away to bring Carlo back. Had it all been for nothing?
Was he going to die now after Carlo had been brought back and they would be separated again?
A shiver racked Romeo’s body and he struggled weakly against his bindings. Pain shot through both of his arms and he quickly went limp once more. He wanted to be on the ground with Carlo. He needed to see him. He had so many things to say to him before he died.
He had lost track of the fight and the next thing he knew, Arlecchino was falling to the ground, his limbs severed like Romeo’s had been. It was over. The Blood Artist was dead once again. Lea had done it.
He was on the ground before he knew it, but he couldn’t stand. Dream Carlo helped him to lie down in Lea’s lap and he weakly stared up at the freckled puppet, his voice not wanting to cooperate with him. A strangled noise came from his throat as the mask was carefully removed from his face and he could breathe freely again.
“Shh.” Lea whispered, stroking delicately over his face. She had tears in her eyes. Romeo had always hated making her cry. He had promised her that he would be alright. “Romeo, don’t. Don’t speak. Save your strength.”
Romeo’s eyes drifted to the puppet that stood beside him. His left arm was made of metal–a Legion Arm. Romeo had seen citizens of Krat with mechanical arms like that before. It was the same arm that Carlo had lost in the Devil’s Pit. Dream Carlo stared back at him, locking eyes with him, but the look in those blue orbs wasn’t what Romeo had been expecting.
He looked guilty. He looked like he might be sick. He looked like he wanted to cry.
Romeo tried to open his mouth again, but the words stuck in his throat. He was simply too weak and his mouth wouldn’t form the words needed to express how he felt.
But it was alright. Carlo was here. They could figure everything out later.
As hard as Romeo fought against it, he lost the battle and his eyes slid shut. He refused to sleep, instead listening to the conversation Lea was having with Dream Carlo. Dream Carlo was surprisingly quiet, much like the way Carlo had been when he had first arrived at the Monad Charity House.
The rays of the rising sun fell over them and Romeo heard Lea gasp. He peeled his eyes open just in time to see Dream Carlo fade away in a cluster of blue aura.
With his mind as muddled as it was from blood loss, Romeo wasn’t too concerned with where Dream Carlo had gone. He focused on the feeling of Lea’s hand combing through his hair, wondering why they were remaining here instead of trying to make their way back home. Perhaps they were waiting for help to arrive. Lea was in no shape to carry him, after all.
They didn’t have to wait long before the sound of footsteps on crunching snow interrupted their silence. Someone had arrived in the rose garden, pulling a heavy trunk behind them. Romeo recognized that coat and hat even from the distance he was at.
Giuseppe Geppetto crouched down and opened up the trunk before throwing down a glove and slipping a device onto his hand.
Romeo knew this was the end now. He was making good on his promise to Geppetto. His metal hand closed around Lea’s and he smiled up at her, nodding his head ever so slightly to let her know that everything was alright. He was going to a better place now. The next time he opened his eyes, he would see Carlo again.
But before he could close his eyes in order to reopen them again, Romeo was met with the most terrifying sight he had ever seen. And he knew then that Geppetto had lied to him.
***
“Can you hear me?”
Yes. Yes, he could hear. He didn’t want to, but he could.
“Open your eyes.”
Romeo obeyed, forcing his eyes open only to be confronted with the last person he wanted to see. Giuseppe Geppetto stood before him, wearing his technician’s outfit as if he had just been working on his next big project.
Oh. Oh, right. He had. And said project was Romeo.
Romeo’s head tipped down so he could look down at his body–and he froze at the sight. He was entirely metal, his body a shining silver color with bits of gold accented here and there. His chest was open, revealing a ticking and pulsing heart inside. It had wires and valves and didn’t beat as a human heart should. Every joint of Romeo’s body had been replaced by hinges, his limbs consisting of individual pieces where flesh and bone should be. Oil smeared over his thighs from where Geppetto still wasn’t finished working on his legs.
He felt ten sizes too big. His legs went on forever and were entirely too big. His torso stretched on and on. His arms hung over the sides of the chair he was restrained in.
He was a puppet. A puppet with a beating heart.
“What do you remember?” Geppetto asked none too gently, snapping Romeo back to attention.
He thought that was a weird question before it occurred to him that he was an experiment. Geppetto wanted to see if Ergo could be transferred into a puppet and they could retain their memories from their past life without having to awaken their Ego.
“Everything.” Romeo answered, his voice coming out entirely wrong. He blinked his eyes, which also felt wrong, but that was because there was lubricant in his eyes instead of tears and tissue.
This answer seemed to satisfy Geppetto and he hummed and stepped closer before jamming a screwdriver into the junction between Romeo’s head and neck, making the puppet’s entire body twitch. “Perfect.”
“At the rose garden–” Romeo tried, desperately in search of answers as to what he had seen. Had that really been Carlo’s corpse? What had happened to Lea?
“Ah,” Geppetto chuckled. “I know you probably want answers. But I’m afraid you aren’t going to get any at the moment. You see, the next time you wake up, I’ll have already started the next step in bringing Carlo back.”
The dread from back at the rose garden crept back into Romeo’s synthetic veins.
“Now,” Geppetto continued. “Sleep. I’ll wake you up for the next phase.”
The screwdriver was twisted and Romeo immediately felt his body power down.
***
This time, Geppetto didn’t command him to wake up. Romeo’s eyes opened of their own accord after his auditory systems came online. It took a little bit longer than he would have liked to be able to see through his new eyes, but once he was able to, he was very confused.
He had no idea where he was, but he was positive it wasn’t Geppetto’s workshop. In fact, if Romeo had to wager a guess, he would say he was in the theater of the Estella Opera House. But why would he be here?
He went to try and move his shoulder, only to find that he couldn’t. Shocked, panic raced through him and he turned his head with a creaking motion to find that his arms were suspended to either side of him. He couldn’t move. Not one single part of his body was mobile except for his head.
If he had lungs, they would be on fire with how quickly he was trying to breathe.
Fitting that the first emotion he experienced as a puppet was fear.
Said fear only became worse when movement caught Romeo’s eye from across the room. Geppetto was there, near the ground, which seemed much farther away from Romeo than it should be. Why had Geppetto strung him up like this? What was he planning for him?
Romeo hadn’t been able to process what had happened to him at the hands of Arlecchino, but he was reliving it all over again now. He was at the mercy of a madman once more.
“Ah, you’re awake.” Geppetto said, walking closer to whatever Romeo was trapped inside of. Because it had just occurred to him that he was surrounded by a metal casing. It was open, however, so that Romeo could still see around the room. It didn’t appear to be a cage, however. Just a metal shell that Romeo assumed went around his back as well as his sides. He wasn’t sure what purpose it held.
“What did you do to me?!”
The voice that left him was different from the one he had possessed the last time he had been awake. It was garbled; a screeching, pained mess.
“Please, don’t speak.” Geppetto sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “No matter how many times I hear it, I’ll never grow used to Puppet Speak. It’s such a disgusting language.”
Puppet Speak? So, Romeo couldn’t communicate with humans anymore?
His heart started racing again, cold fear seizing him.
“I’ll do all of the talking here.” Geppetto went on, gazing up at Romeo. “You keep your mouth shut.”
Mouth? Romeo wasn’t even sure he had a mouth. When he had spoken, nothing moved. He felt vibrations somewhere in his throat, in a voice box he assumed Geppetto had installed. But his lips hadn’t parted.
What did his face look like? Was it just a mask like the one Arlecchino had clamped onto his face back then? How long ago had the rose garden been, anyway? Geppetto did look a bit older now than he had then. How many years had passed since Romeo had died?
“If you’re wondering where you are, you’re in the Estella Opera House.” Geppetto continued, speaking at Romeo rather than to him. It was reminiscent of how adults spoke to children when they thought they were too dumb to understand something. “I’ve brought you here because you’re a key component in my plan to bring Carlo back.”
Romeo brightened at this. So, Geppetto really hadn’t been lying then. But if he hadn’t brought Carlo back just yet, then who had Romeo seen fighting beside Lea in the rose garden? Once again, his mind was very muddled and foggy. He couldn’t make sense of his thoughts.
“The experiment to transfer your Ergo from your body into a puppet body was a success.” Geppetto reported. “You have your memories, and judging by the looks you’re giving me, you also retained your personality.”
Geppetto walked to one of the tables that still decorated the room and took a seat in a chair, folding one leg over the other, fingers intertwined as he stared up at Romeo. “I could bring Carlo back right now. The same way I did to you.”
Romeo’s heart leapt. He could see Carlo again? Soon?
“But I don’t want a puppet for a son.” Geppetto hissed, spitting out the words like they were venom. Romeo had never seen such a look of disgust on someone’s face before. “When I bring Carlo back, he will be flesh and blood again. He’ll be a good boy for me, just like I had always wanted him to be. We’ll have another chance to be a family again.”
If Romeo hadn’t been confused before, he definitely was now. Geppetto had never mentioned anything about bringing back the dead in this way. Puppets were his expertise, so how could he resurrect an entire human being without a puppet body?
Romeo knew he had been lied to when he saw that disfigured, greyish body stumble out of the trunk in the rose garden. It had been half puppet, half corpse, but unmistakably Carlo. The legs were mechanical now, as was the left arm, and most of its heart was on the outside of its body. It had no features that would make it human–no eyes, no mouth, no nostrils to breathe out of. Its head was devoid of hair, and Romeo had noticed as it had come closer to him that its skull appeared to have been severed and reattached so that Geppetto could work inside of its head. That was where the golden strings had been attached, after all. The ones that linked to the glove Geppetto had worn to control the puppet.
Romeo had pieced together then what Geppetto had done. He had dug up his dead son’s body shortly after he had died. He had desecrated him, experimented on him, defiled him in death when he should have been resting. Even after Carlo had died, Geppetto hadn’t let him sleep. The old man was always fighting to control him.
“That’s right,” Geppetto went on, locking eyes with Romeo and bouncing his leg some. “My first experiment on Carlo’s body had been a failure. The heart wasn’t strong enough to bring a human back to life, so I had to use some puppet parts. That Nameless Puppet had been hard to control, but I perfected the heart with you and the transfer of Ergo. Next time I attempt this on Carlo, it will all work out perfectly.”
Next time? Just how many times was Geppetto going to torture Carlo in death? How many times was he going to try bringing him back for his own gain? Why couldn’t he just let him rest?
Why couldn’t Romeo give up on the idea of bringing Carlo back, either? They were both haunted by his passing, but unlike Geppetto, Romeo truly loved Carlo. It was selfish that he wanted to bring him back, and he saw that now. He had made a mistake agreeing to Geppetto’s plan. He had made a mistake not guarding Carlo’s grave better. He had failed to protect him in death just like how he had in life.
“You see, I’ve created the ultimate puppet as a place holder for Carlo’s heart. He’s currently making his way through Krat and collecting Ergo to help power the heart that will bring Carlo back to life, at last.”
Romeo felt sick. Geppetto had put his son’s heart into a puppet body and now it was acting as his personal errand boy to collect Ergo for his final experiment?
“But, you have a part to play in all of this, dear boy.” Geppetto said, standing up and gesturing way up high into the air. “You will be my King of Puppets, and the reason that all of the puppets in Krat have been going into a mad frenzy and killing everyone. You are the reason the puppets have banned together to form a blood thirsty army. You are the one to blame for everyone in Krat living in fear of the puppets. That way, their Ergo can be collected, and Carlo can return to me.”
Romeo felt dizzy at Geppetto’s words. What was he even talking about? The puppets had gone mad? They were killing innocent civilians? The whole city was living in fear of them? But how? Everyone knew of the Grand Covenant that was imprinted on puppets during their making. It prevented them from ever harming a human being and made them obey their masters.
“You have been asleep longer than you think.” Geppetto continued. “Long enough for me to change the laws of the Grand Covenant. Long enough for me to install Law Zero, a failsafe that will ensure the puppets obey their creator above all else; me.”
“You’re making the puppets kill everyone in Krat?!” Romeo’s speech came out as a garbled mess again, making Geppetto flinch and grind his teeth.
“Stop that inane screeching. It’s unbecoming of a king such as yourself.”
King. Geppetto had said he would be a king before. The King of Puppets. But Romeo didn’t understand how.
Romeo watched Geppetto approach him, just then noticing the rolling ladder he brought along with him. The old man climbed to the top of it and was suddenly face to face with Romeo. More than anything, Romeo wished he could fly forward and strangle him. How dare he trick him. How dare he desecrate Carlo’s grave. How dare he defile his corpse. How dare he kill the citizens of Krat for his own personal gain.
Carlo wouldn’t want this. He wouldn’t want so many lives to be lost just to bring his own back.
Even if it meant coming back to Romeo, it wasn’t worth it. They had vowed to protect the people of Krat–it was their purpose as Stalkers. It was what they had strived to do all their lives.
Carlo wouldn’t want this. He wouldn’t.
“It will take some time for you to get used to this body, but once you do, you’ll get to meet my greatest creation.” Geppetto said, conversationally as he reached up above Romeo’s head to pull something large and heavy down. Romeo watched in horror as he was slowly enclosed into the metal shell, darkness enveloping him from all sides. “How fitting it will be once my puppet destroys you, the one who took my precious Carlo away from me. If you hadn’t led him astray, insisting he become a Stalker, then he wouldn’t have thrown his life away. He wouldn’t have died. He would still be here with me.”
A jolt of electricity raced through Romeo’s back and when he opened his eyes, he was seeing from much higher up. He blinked his new eyes, feeling almost as tall as the ceiling. He tipped his head down, meeting Geppetto’s impossibly small form on top of the ladder.
“Your Ergo will help power Carlo’s new heart, though. So, it isn’t all a waste. If it hadn’t been for you, I wouldn’t have been able to bring Carlo back in the flesh. It’s too bad you’ll never get to see him again though.”
Another screech left Romeo’s throat, though this one had no meaning. It was so much deeper than his normal voice, and he knew it was the voice of the King of Puppets. He knew he was strung up inside of a much larger puppet, the one that Geppetto intended on blaming everything on. The one that would be blamed for the Puppet Frenzy.
The one that his ultimate puppet would come and destroy in order to bring Carlo back.
***
It had taken what felt like ages, but Romeo slowly became accustomed to his new body. He was able to meander slowly around the theater, but he was trapped inside of the shell of the King of Puppets and this room. His new body was much too large to leave, not that he really wanted to anyway.
He used his time learning to communicate with his fellow puppets. There were so many of them with awakened Egos, and Romeo found those puppets weren’t being controlled by Law Zero. Those puppets vowed to fight beside him and protect the humans. Romeo may never get a chance to see Carlo again, but that didn’t mean he was giving up on his duties as a Stalker. He would fight for Krat until he had nothing left in him. It didn’t matter how many times he died and was brought back to life, he would be useful until the last drop.
The puppets were loyal until the very end and Romeo felt horrible to even see one of them fall. He had never thought much of puppets before, but now that he was one, he learned how utterly human they actually were. They had thoughts and feelings and personalities, and he owed them so much. They didn’t want to harm the humans, but Geppetto was forcing them to.
They referred to him as their king. They looked up to him. They always asked him what they could do to help.
They were his friends. His new family. And he cared for them.
Through the use of Stargazers, Romeo was able to learn from the puppets on the streets about Geppetto’s puppet. At first, Romeo had thought that once again he was delirious. A puppet that looked exactly like Carlo but had blue eyes? Why did Dream Carlo keep appearing to him? Was he a ghost that was haunting him? Or was he something else entirely?
Romeo decided that whatever he was, he was going to protect him too. After all, Geppetto’s end goal was to rip the heart out of this Carlo puppet and transfer it back into the corpse he had desecrated. He had mentioned the version of Carlo that would be resurrected in the flesh would be obedient, which meant one thing to Romeo; it wouldn’t be Carlo. Carlo wouldn’t want any of this to happen and he most definitely wouldn’t want to be blindly obedient to his father.
Romeo’s plan was simple; relay this information to Geppetto’s puppet through a play. He would let him know that Geppetto planned on stealing his heart and that he should join Romeo in his efforts to stop him. Together, they could protect Krat and its citizens.
However, like most plans in Romeo’s life, this one didn’t quite work out the way he had wanted it to.
Dream Carlo didn’t think much of the little play he had put on. He looked confused, in fact, his eyes much less sharp than they had been back in the rose garden. He hadn’t even clapped when the puppet actors had bowed. Romeo guessed he didn’t enjoy the show at all.
“Carlo…” he spoke to him, extending his hand. He knew this version of Carlo wasn’t his Carlo, but he didn’t know what else to call him. Besides, he held Carlo’s heart. So maybe that meant that he at least had some of Carlo’s memories. “Do you remember me?”
Romeo extended his hand only for it to be slapped away, the sound of metal clashing against metal ringing throughout the room.
“It’s me.” he tried again, jumping back when Carlo drew his weapon. “It’s Romeo. Don’t you remember me?”
Carlo gave no indication that he had heard him at all. He just lunged forward and attacked. Romeo wasn’t used to fighting in this body, but he did his best to move about the room as best he could. He didn’t want to hurt Carlo in any form, but he had to do what he could to stop Geppetto’s plans from coming to fruition.
He couldn’t allow this puppet’s heart to be taken by Geppetto.
If that meant that Romeo had to kill this puppet himself to stop Geppetto from getting a hold of Carlo’s heart and bringing him back into a living hell, then Romeo wouldn’t hesitate to dispose of this puppet.
Ultimately, Carlo had proven to be too much for him. The body of the King of Puppets wasn’t meant to move around as much as Romeo was making it during the fight. It overheated, the chest plate bursting from the built up pressure inside and Romeo felt flames lick the side of his face before the inevitable explosion.
He realized two things once he was kneeling on his feet. The first was that Geppetto had left his scythe in his hand–albeit slightly altered. It had been fused with the very weapon that Arlecchino had used to saw off his arms. It was now the Puppet Ripper, though Romeo wasn’t sure how he knew this.
The second thing Romeo realized was that Geppetto had left him with the necklace that Carlo had gifted him after his graduation. It swung around his neck as he moved the Ripper about, testing its weight. It was perfectly calibrated for his body.
“We don’t have to fight, Carlo.” Romeo tried to convince him, leaping back when Carlo charged at him. He brought his scythe up and the sabre that Carlo was using collided with the shaft of it. “Come on! Use your head! Geppetto is trying to take your heart! You’re a means to an end! He’s going to try and bring his son back with the heart you have now!”
It was no use. Carlo wasn’t listening. Not only that, but Carlo was an impossibly good fighter. They danced together through the theater just like they always had during their training sessions, their moves often colliding where neither of them could get a hit in. Romeo instinctively knew where Carlo would go and what attacks he would try. Carlo, in turn, was able to read Romeo’s moves just as perfectly.
Romeo remembered when they would dance at the parties Lady Antonia would hold. It was much like this. They were always able to read each other, to step where they needed to step, and to make it look effortless. The only difference between then and now was the way Carlo would look at him.
There was no recognition in those eyes now. There was no happiness. There was no love.
There was only blind devotion to a father who was using him.
Romeo knew he had to put this puppet out of his misery and protect Carlo’s heart at all costs, but in the end, he just couldn’t do it. This puppet wore Carlo’s face, after all. It didn’t matter that he had more freckles, or that his hair was slightly darker, or that his eyes were startlingly blue. That was Carlo looking back at him, and Romeo couldn’t make himself land the blade of the Ripper in his chest. He couldn’t pierce the heart that at one time used to beat for him.
Instead, Carlo pierced Romeo’s heart, the sabre protruding from his back as he bent double and looked down into Carlo’s eyes. Carlo had always been shorter than him, but not this much shorter. Geppetto really had made Romeo a monster.
“Maybe…this is what true freedom feels like.” he said, feeling like he was speaking to himself. Carlo hadn’t given any indication that he could understand him throughout this entire fight, after all.
If Romeo couldn’t stop Carlo from giving over his heart to Geppetto, if he couldn’t put an end to the suffering of the citizens of Krat, then all he wanted to do was rest. He wanted it to be over.
Maybe in the next life, he could be reunited with Carlo again.
“Thank you…Carlo.”
Dying this time was entirely different from last time. It had been like a flash last time, ending before he could even process what was happening. This time, Romeo’s life flashed before his eyes. He saw everything in slow motion and he got to soak up every single memory that he ever shared with Carlo. He could hear his laugh, see his smile, feel his touch. And it felt warm.
It felt warm as it all faded to black.
***
Romeo hadn’t expected his eyes to ever open again, but it seemed life wasn’t done with him just yet. His first thought was that he wished he could just sleep longer. He didn’t want to open his eyes and see something horrible again; like Carlo’s shambled corpse, or Geppetto’s menacing smile. He just wanted to be at peace and rest.
“Are…are you awake?”
That voice. He had heard it before, but he couldn’t quite place where.
Curiosity won out and Romeo peeled his eyes open, finding that they worked much better than they had the last time he had awakened as a puppet. He wondered if he had a different body once again.
The first thing he was greeted with was a bright light above him, like the kind one would find on a surgical table. It made sense then, when Romeo realized he was indeed lying on a table of that fashion. “Where…am I?”
“At Hotel Krat.” the voice answered, giving Romeo pause. The last time he had spoken, it had been in Puppet Speak. Yet, whoever he was speaking to now had understood him.
“You can understand me?” he asked, letting his head fall to the side, the sight before him nearly causing him to die of a heart attack all over again.
Sitting on a chair a few feet away, with silver hair that curtained his freckled face, was Carlo.
“Carlo…”
The boy in the chair frowned, sitting up a bit straighter in his seat. “I…I’m not Carlo.” he said, his voice impossibly soft. Carlo had a soft voice like that, but this boy’s voice wasn’t exactly the same as Carlo’s had been. “I’m sorry.”
Romeo tried to blink away his confusion before he pushed himself to sit up. A sheet had been draped over his body and when it fell away, he noticed that he appeared human. But that couldn’t be. He had died as a puppet. Not only that, but he was sure he wasn’t human. He could feel it. “What…happened to me?”
The boy who wasn’t Carlo worried his bottom lip, a nervous habit that Carlo had developed when he was younger. “I killed you.” he answered, seeming ashamed of the words he was speaking. “At the opera house.”
The opera house. The King of Puppets. Geppetto’s plan to resurrect Carlo in flesh and blood.
The puppet who carried his heart. That’s who this boy was.
“You’re him.” Romeo pieced together, swinging his legs over the side of the table. He was wearing new clothes that didn’t fully appear to fit him properly and were too short for his long legs. “The puppet Geppetto created to carry Carlo’s heart.”
The boy hung his head, but gave the slightest of nods to confirm that Romeo was correct.
Romeo took several shaky steps over to the boy and knelt down in front of his chair, his mechanical limbs creaking as he got used to operating this new body. He peered up at Carlo’s face, reaching out and cupping it in his hands. It felt warm and not how a puppet’s face should feel at all. “You didn’t give him your heart. My message got through to you.”
The boy’s eyes locked with his own, and for a moment Romeo felt like he couldn’t breathe. Time froze and Romeo wasn’t sure what he was feeling. It was like he was looking at Carlo but not at the same time.
It was like falling in love all over again.
That was what it was.
“It did.” the boy confirmed. “Because of you, I was able to stop Father. He…he used Carlo’s corpse against me in the end, but it broke free from his hold. It…it killed him…and then I killed it.”
So Geppetto was dead. And Carlo’s corpse was finally at rest.
Romeo let out a shaky sigh, his eyes flooding with tears. “Thank you.” he sobbed, his hands shaking and losing their hold on the puppet’s cheeks. “You…you did what I couldn’t. You set Carlo free…”
The puppet shook his head. “I just did what needed to be done. Father had been the one who had caused all of the death and destruction in Krat, but now the city is getting back to its feet. It’s healing.”
“Good.” Romeo sighed, his tears drying up slightly. Now wasn’t the time to cry. He still had so many questions. “But…why am I back?”
Color flooded the puppet’s cheeks and he looked down to his lap, the fingers of his metal hand meeting his flesh one to toy with one another. “I was only able to save Krat because of the message you had left behind for me. I thought…you deserved to see the city that you had managed to save one last time.”
Romeo could only blink as he tried to process the words the puppet boy had just said.
“You deserve another chance to be happy, Romeo.” the puppet said, and when Romeo heard him say his name, he truly believed that he meant it.
“What’s your name?” he found himself asking, moving the slightest bit closer to the puppet. “I can’t keep calling you Carlo if you aren’t him.”
The puppet gave a shy little smile and reached up to brush some of his silver hair behind his ear. “Father never gave me a name, so I’ve been calling myself P.”
- Romeo had seen that letter scribbled on the schematics of this puppet’s blueprints. Romeo knew it likely just stood for “puppet”, but P had made it his own.
Besides, it seemed fitting since Carlo’s favorite book had been about a puppet named Pinocchio. P being short for Pinocchio worked out well.
“P,” Romeo repeated. “It’s nice to meet you, P.”
P gave a proper smile, his cheeks still red with a blush. Romeo thought he looked ridiculously pretty when he smiled. “It’s nice to meet you too.”
***
Over the next couple of weeks, Romeo got reacquainted with the city of Krat. He began helping in the restoration process as best he could, shadowing P at every chance he got. He felt drawn to the very human looking puppet, and he was dying to learn everything he could about him.
P didn’t have all of Carlo’s memories, but he had some, and more were coming back to him each day. However, P had told him that just because he carried Carlo’s heart and his memories, that didn’t mean that he would suddenly awaken one day as Carlo. He had forged his own memories and experiences, after all. He was P, but with memories of his past life.
At first, Romeo wasn’t sure what to make of this. He was disheartened that P wasn’t Carlo, despite looking so much like him. P even did a lot of things that Carlo did without even realizing it. He played the piano just as well as Carlo ever did. He hated brussel sprouts and wrinkled his nose when he was displeased with something. He was just as good a Stalker as Carlo had ever been, and he was very good at causing trouble when he wanted to. He was headstrong, but more malleable than Carlo had ever been.
But P liked dancing more than Carlo did. P liked learning to cook when Romeo had to practically drag Carlo into the kitchen to help him prepare meals for Lea after she got home from long missions. P didn’t understand a lot of what it meant to be human, seeing as he was a puppet with a human heart.
He explained to Romeo that he was changing and that Romeo’s body might become more human over time as well. They had used the same schematics that had been used to build P to remake Romeo. And so, together, they would relearn what it meant to be human.
Romeo had never lost any of his human emotions, but his puppet body had been unable to do any of the things humans were able to do. As such, he relearned how to breathe, eat, and sleep when he needed to. Things came to him slowly, but he was learning and P was right there helping him get used to his new body.
Every time Romeo looked at P, he felt conflicted. That feeling that swirled in his chest when P had first smiled at him was still there, and it was similar to the feeling he felt when he first realized that he was in love with Carlo. But P wasn’t Carlo. Was it really alright for Romeo to love him?
He had promised he would never leave Carlo. Would he have to let go of Carlo if he wanted to love P?
“Can’t sleep?” Romeo asked, nearly scaring P out of his synthetic skin as he approached the piano bench in the dead of the night.
“Sorry.” P breathed, his fingers stilling over the keys. Romeo knew the upper levels couldn’t hear the piano, so it wasn’t like P had woken any of the residents of the hotel. “Did I wake you?”
Romeo shook his head and took a seat on the piano bench beside his friend. “I’m still relearning how to sleep through the night. I usually wake up and wander around for a bit. Imagine my surprise when I found my favorite puppet down here!” He didn’t have the heart to tell P about the nightmares he frequently suffered from.
P gave him a dimpled smile before his fingers returned to the keys and started playing a melody. “Maybe the music will help you sleep.”
Romeo just hummed, watching P beside him, the way he effortlessly fell back into the music.
They fell into silence, the only sounds were the notes coming from the piano echoing around them. This late at night, it was like they were the only ones who existed in all of Krat.
“I want to thank you again.” Romeo said suddenly, unsure why he felt compelled to say those words. “For giving me a second chance. For bringing me back.”
P’s fingers stilled over the keys again before he brought his hands to his lap. He turned to look at Romeo, that calm smile on his face. He always looked so calm, so unlike how Carlo was a storm of emotions. “I have to admit, I did lie a bit back then.”
“About what?” Romeo asked, tipping his head to the side.
“My reasons for bringing you back might have been a bit more selfish than I had told you.” P replied, blue eyes pouring into Romeo’s hazel ones as his cheeks flooded with color. “Like I said, I have some of Carlo’s memories. And…so many of them are of you. I…I wanted to get to know you better.”
Romeo’s heart skipped a beat, something he was sure it hadn’t done since he had become a puppet. He swallowed as P leaned in closer and their breath ghosted over each other’s faces. “P, wait–”
“You’re worried.” P continued, licking his lips nervously but not getting any closer to Romeo. “I know you still think of Carlo when you look at me. I know that sometimes you wish I were him. If…If I were you, I would be the same way.”
Romeo froze as P reached out and took his hand, bringing it to his own chest placing it over his heart. Beneath his palm, Romeo could feel Carlo’s heart beating, the rhythm bringing tears to his eyes. How many nights had he fallen asleep with his head on Carlo’s chest, just listening to his heart beating? Too many. Too many to count.
It beat the same way as it did back then.
“You’re afraid that getting closer to me will mean having to let go of Carlo.” P went on. “But, it doesn’t have to mean that.”
Twin tears raced down Romeo’s cheeks before curling under his chin. P was incredibly insightful at times, the same way Carlo had been. He was able to read Romeo like a book.
“You promised you would never leave him.” P whispered, reaching out with his other hand and cupping one side of Romeo’s face. When he was sure Romeo would keep his hand pressed to his heart, P moved his other hand to Romeo’s other cheek and brought him in closer. “And you never did.”
It was true. P carried Carlo’s heart. He held his memories. He was Carlo, and he wasn’t.
And Romeo had never left him. He had fought for him until the bitter end. And P had returned the favor by bringing him back to life.
“You can allow yourself to have this, Romeo.” P breathed, his breath ghosting over Romeo’s lips. It felt so warm that Romeo found himself leaning in closer. “I promise you, Carlo won’t mind. I can feel it in my heart.”
For a moment, Romeo could have sworn that P’s eyes flashed brown. He saw Carlo smirking up at him, that boyish, devilish charm all encompassing.
And Romeo couldn’t help but kiss him.
He knew it was P kissing him back, but he wanted it to be P. Carlo was at rest now, but Romeo would always love him. He would live on in P’s heart and in their memories together.
But P and Romeo were here now, and they deserved a chance to move on; to be happy together. Romeo thought that maybe it was alright to have two true loves, especially after losing Carlo.
The process of healing from grief was a complicated one and Romeo still hadn’t figured it out entirely yet, but learning that he could give in and love P the way he wanted to would surely help him heal.