Chapter Text
Wemmbu thinks whatever bastard came up with the idea of The Law should have their own hand chopped off and see how they like it. Now, you might be wondering why he’d be thinking about something so gruesome. Well, it might be because he has about four lawmen chasing after him in their hefty sun-crested armour, obviously not tailored to their specific body types, yelling at him to, “Get back here!” As if any criminal has ever listened to that in their lives.
Wemmbu took a quick glance over his shoulder. Once he saw that he’d gained enough distance, he cheekily raised the sack full of bread over his head and waved it mockingly.
“Oh come on, it’s only a few loaves bro, tell the shopkeep to get over it!” He said, before turning around and continuing to book it.
He pushed past a few slow civilians who weren’t quick enough to get out of his way before his eye caught onto a tipped wagon, the hay that should have been within it strewn about as the wagoneer tried to comfort their frazzled horses. “Perfect,” he thought triumphantly, before running towards the downed wagon and leaping onto its turned side. He used the momentum of his first jump to jump up towards the nearest balcony. Realizing he had miscalculated his jump, he desperately reached for the balcony's edge. He barely grabbed onto the floor of the balcony, pulling himself up just in time as he felt a hand just barely graze the sole of his shoe, before he was over and out.
Wemmbu ran through the thankfully open balcony door and ignored the startled man inside who stared at him in shock as he ran past him. Wemmbu opened a window and turned back to see a lawman crawling his way up onto the balcony to enter the house as well.
“Dude, it’s just bread!!” He yelled before putting the sack in his mouth. He then ambled his way out of the window and began to slowly scale the building's wall, tail swaying wildly behind him for balance. ‘There’s no way they’ll follow me this way.’ He thought.
He finally reached the roof. He pulled the sack out of his mouth and went back to holding it. Then he took a second to catch his breath before he heard the most absurd sound. He slowly kneeled down to look back over the edge to see that the random lawman who had chased him into the house was CLIMBING THE FREAKING WALL!
The color drained from Wemmbu’s face. Without a word, Wemmbu got to his feet and ran to the opposite edge of the roof before jumping. After a second of free-fall, he landed onto a smaller roof. He continued to hop roof to roof until he spotted an empty alleyway between two buildings. He jumped down without hesitation. Once he reached the ground, he glanced about until he found a trash can. He wrinkled his nose, but knew he had no other choice as he leaped inside it and closed the lid.
Barely a second passed before he heard someone jump from the roof into the same alley he was in. Silence was all he heard, then footsteps, getting closer and closer. Wemmbu slipped his knife off his belt and waited for the lid to open. Then, suddenly, a voice rang out through the alleyway. “Yo! What’s up?” Said a young voice, seemingly male if Wemmbu had to guess.
The alley fell into silence for a second before the lawman responded.
“Get lost, kid, I’m chasing down a criminal that the laws been after for years now. It’s none of your business anyway.” The man said in a gruff and obviously pissed tone.
“You mean that purple demon kid who stole like, three loaves of bread? Doesn’t really sound like an end-level threat, bro.” The kid said in a matter-of-fact tone.
‘Why’s this guy acting so nonchalant, yo?’ Wemmbu thought, but he couldn’t really complain since he seemed to be distracting the lawman from looking too hard at the trash can he was hiding in. ‘Now, only if these two could go and yap somewhere else. Maybe he’ll arrest that kid and call it a day?’ He thought, though for some reason, a rare feeling of guilt washed over him at the thought of letting this kid take the fall for his actions. Wemmbu shook the feeling away and perked his ears to hear more of the conversation.
“-Don't have time for this, out of my way!” The lawman said, before Wemmbu heard a thump, that was supposedly the body of the kid hitting the ground after being pushed. Then the rapid footsteps of the lawman slowly receded until the alley was silent once more.
Wemmbu grew stock still, trying his best not to make a single noise. ‘Is he gone yet? I haven't heard any footsteps. Did the lawman hit him with something? Is that kid dying? Should I-’
“Yo dude, you can come out now, he’s gone.” Said the unknown kid with a flippant tone.
‘Oh hell nah, how’d he know I was here, bro’s hacking in real life.’ Wemmbu thought apprehensively. But, despite knowing that he should feel wary, that he shouldn’t trust this kid, he felt oddly at ease in this moment, so much so that he hadn’t even realised that he had pushed up the trash can lid and jumped out until he was already standing on the ground.
Wemmbu looked down at the kid, who was still on the ground where the lawman had supposedly pushed him to. The kid had white hair, bright as fresh snow, that covered the upper half of his face completely, along with two small wings on the sides of his head. To top everything off, he had a blue eye in the center of his forehead, hair parting around it. An eye that was staring right at him, or, maybe, through him? He couldn't tell.
“Y-You’re an angel.” He said in some awe. Angel hybrids were very rare, and little was known about them. Other than the general stuff about them being kind and loathing evil or something, pretty sure they also hated demons, but Wemmbu never paid attention when he was being taught that kinda stuff, so he wouldn’t know.
“Yup, now can you, like I don't know, help me up or something? I know I look epic and all, but it’s kinda rude to stare.” The angel hybrid said in a dead-toned voice.
Wemmbu blushed a deep purple before scrambling towards the kid, offering him a hand, which he gratefully accepted, and pulling him up.
‘I’m usually so much more nonchalant than this, I’m losing so much aura right now!’ Wemmbu lamented, but that’s what he supposed living alone in a random abandoned shack with little to no social interaction would do to a guy.
Wemmbu let go of the boy's hand before giving him a once-over. He hadn’t even noticed the long black cloak the kid had worn over himself, concealing everything but his neck upwards, as the hood had fallen down.
‘That must be why the lawman didn’t comment on the fact that this guy's an angel, he didn’t see his face, it must have been covered.’ Wemmbu thought.
Wemmbu realised a bit too late that he’d just been staring at this kid for a good few seconds again, but decided to wait for him to speak first, he had already lost all his aura anyways, so it didn’t matter much now.
“Sooooo uh, nice weather we’re having today.” The kid said, sounding awkward. Wemmbu didn't know why, but something deep within him bubbled to the surface for the first time in years. A laugh.
Wemmbu burst out laughing, and not the cute kind either, he laughed for so long and so loudly that he was shocked that the lawman didn’t hear it and turn around. By the end of the fit, he was leaning down, hands on his knees, taking in gulps of air while trying to catch his breath.
“Alright, bro, chill out yo, the weather isn’t that good.” Said the kid while he patted Wemmbu’s back comfortingly. Wemmbu wanted to start laughing again, but just barely held himself back with the fear he might break something if he did.
After a few more seconds of recovery and being patted on the back, Wemmbu gave the kid a thumbs up to show he was fine now, before straightening up again, tears still in his eyes despite the fact that Wemmbu now realised how unfunny the joke even was, if you could even call it a joke in the first place, but for some reason the way the other kid had said it had made him laugh harder then he’d ever laughed since- well, nevermind that.
“So, what's your name?” The angel hybrid asked.
“My name?” Wemmbu asked, still out of breath. “It’s Wemmbu. What about you? What’s your name?”
“I’ll tell you, but on your life, you better not laugh, bro.”
“What?! Why’s it got to be my life being bet? You know what? Fine, on my life I won't laugh.” Wemmbu said while raising his hand in oath.
“My name is Eggchan.” The kid said, purely monotone. It took less than a second for Wemmbu to be bent over laughing his butt off once more.
“Ok, bro, really? YOUR NAME IS WEMMBU? YOU CAN’T BE LAUGHING??”
This just made Wemmbu laugh harder since the kid seemed genuinely upset. He knew he didn’t have room to be making fun of names, but for some reason, ragebaiting this kid filled him with an unadulterated joy he couldn’t properly describe.
“O-Okay, my bad bruh, my bad. I gotta put respect on the name eggchan. Sorry for my disrespect.” Wemmbu said, still laughing, though all jokes aside, the name egg sounded a little familiar, but he decided to brush it off.
“You should be sorry,” Eggchan said with mock seriousness, which brought another chuckle out of Wemmbu.
After a few seconds of surprisingly not awkward silence, Wemmbu finally thought to start asking questions.
“So, why did you save me? Heck, how did you even know I was in the trashcan?” Wemmbu asked, finally voicing the question he should have asked minutes ago.
‘What am I doing? Being all giggly around a possible threat?’ Wemmbu thought, but his heart wasn’t in it, he didn’t know why, but he really felt like he could trust this Eggchan kid.
“I mean, why wouldn’t I save you? Those lawmen are jerks. Treating hungry street kids like S-tier criminals. Does bro really have nothing better to do?”
Wemmbu chuckled again, laughing more in these few minutes than he had in the entirety of last year. It wasn’t a very good year, but the point still stands.
“For real, bro, that guy was acting like I just burned down seven orphanages and punched his grandma. HE SCALED A BUILDING TO CHASE AFTER ME! The other three that were chasing me didn't even do all that.”
“Who was bro feeling like? Prime law? If Batman is vengeance, then that guy was Justice, but only the kind of Justice that puts puppies down for growling too much.”
Wemmbu laughed hardily, and this time, he didn’t try to stop, just letting himself feel happy in their shared clowning of a lawman who got WAY too close to catching Wemmbu and bringing him to ‘justice’.
‘I’m losing my edge lowkey. I gotta get back on training, hunger isn’t an excuse to just stop.’ He thought.
“Wait, but you didn’t answer one of my questions. How did you know where I was hiding?” Wemmbu asked, a bit suspiciously, but he couldn’t really put his heart into the suspicion at the moment.
“Well, you weren’t all that quiet. I heard a lot of noise coming from this alley and came to investigate. I saw you right before you closed the trash lid on yourself. I also saw you earlier in the market, running from the lawmen, so I sorta followed you a bit. Or as well as I could. You’re lowkey a whole acrobat, how were you jumping roof to roof and scaling walls all while holding a sack full of bread that whole time? I mean it’s really impressi-”
Eggchan’s words started to fade out as Wemmbu registered them. ‘Wait, where's my sack of bread?’ He thought, with a sinking feeling in his stomach that was a bit too similar to hunger.
Wemmbu whipped around, causing Eggchan to stop talking abruptly, before he pulled himself up towards the top of the open trash can. Then he started to desperately move the filled trashbags about in search of his haul.
“No no no no no no-” He muttered, panic growing. It was gone. It was gone.
“You good?” Eggchan said inquisitively.
Wemmbu jumped down from the trash can, pulled his knife from his belt, and stormed towards him. Without any warning, he grabbed him by the neck of his cloak and pulled him closer, knife pointed to his neck.
“WHERE IS IT?!” He yelled, teeth bared, all joviality gone in an instant, not a trace of laughter in his tone.
“Wheres what bro?” Eggchan responded, hands raised in a surrendering gesture, no inflection in his voice. Still monotone, but it wasn't funny anymore, now it just made Wemmbu angrier.
“THE BREAD! THE SACK WITH THE BREAD IN IT! THE ONE I JUST RISKED MY RIGHT HAND FOR AND A LIFE IN THE LAW’S DUSTY JAIL!!” Wemmbu paused and took a deep breath in before continuing.
“Where. Is. It?”
“I’m sorry Wemmbu. I don’t know.”
Wemmbu stared long and hard at the boy, trying to detect any sign of deceit.
He stared for a few seconds more. Then sighed. And released him.
Eggchan took a respectful step backwards and waited for Wemmbu to calm down. Wemmbu put his knife back in his belt. He breathed in and out, holding his hands over his face in pure sorrow. After one final deep breath, he spoke.
“Look, I’m sorry, Eggchan. I-I must have dropped the sack somehow while I was fleeing the Lawman. I shouldn’t have blamed you for it, it’s not your fault.” Wemmbu said, remorsefully, ears pinned nearly to the back of his head with his shame.
‘This kid basically saved my life, and I repay him by threatening him at knifepoint? I mean, he’s obviously well off, judging by the quality of his cloak, what use would he have for my loaves of bread? How dumb can I be?’
“Dude, chill, it’s alright, I understand how hard it is out here… Well, I actually probably don’t, to be honest, but I get that, that food meant a lot to you. I mean, you’re obviously malnourished.” Egg gestured at Wemmbu’s body, making him feel oddly ashamed.
Eggchan put his hand to his chin in a thinking motion for a few seconds, then seemed to get an idea.
“I got it! How about you come over to my house for dinner? I’m sure my dad won’t mind.” He said casually.
Wemmbu froze, he’d never been invited to eat over at a friend's house before. ‘Wait, a friend? Since when had I started to think of this kid as a friend? I only met him a few minutes ago.’ Wemmbu shook his head to rid himself of the thoughts, before responding.
“Uhh, Sorry Eggchan, but-”
“Just call me Egg.”
“Huh?”
“I said, Just call me Egg, No need to say the chan part, it's a bit of a mouthful, isn’t it?” Egg said, eye still staring at him like it was looking through him, into his inner workings and seeing how he ticked, but still, somehow, not triggering any warning alarms in Wemmbu’s head.
“Uh, sure, alright, sorry, Egg, but I can’t.”
“Awww, come on man, why?” Egg said in the winiest tone he’d heard from him yet, a huge change from the usual monotone.
Egg probably wouldn’t like the real answer, he probably didn’t need to know that this whole ‘find a starving kid in a random location and take them home with you’ bit had already happened for Wemmbu, and he had already seen how it ends. Poorly, to say the least.
“Sorry, dude, you seem chill and all, but I barely know you,” Wemmbu said in a firm tone, expecting a lot of resistance. Some more whining, a threat, he didn’t know.
“Okay.”
Wemmbu blinked, befuddled.
“Okay?”
“Yeah, it makes sense, stranger danger and all.” Egg let out a little chuckle, it sent a shiver down Wemmbu’s spine for a reason he couldn’t pinpoint. ‘This is good then, he understands.’ He thought to reassure himself.
“Alright then, it was nice to meet you, Egg. Thanks for the save, I guess. I’ll uhh see you around.” Wemmbu waved awkwardly as he exited the alleyway. His previously absent feeling of unease was slowly creeping back up his spine.
“Don’t worry. We’ll meet again.” Egg said in a cheery tone as he waved enthusiastically back at Wemmbu.
‘Was that a promise or a threat? Or am I just being paranoid again?’ Wemmbu thought, squinting his eyes at the angel hybrid, before turning around and walking away, still feeling the stare burning against his back, making his hair stand on end.
Without realising it, he started to walk faster, and faster until he was sprinting away.
Egg walked past the frenzied guards at the entrance to the palace and ignored their worried words. He kept his steady gate, sack firmly gripped in his hand. He walked through the halls until he was near the front of his father's bedroom door. It’s imposing form looming over him with its grandiose height. Way too flashy for his father's taste, Egg knew, but a king had to have his symbols of status. If it were completely up to his father, Egg knew they’d both live in a humble cabin in the woods, far from the prying and judgmental eyes of the nobles of the end kingdom, but even Egg wasn’t too naive to think that would ever be a possibility.
Egg strode towards it, ignoring the guards at the entrance saying they had to alert the king before his entry. He knew they wouldn’t dare try to stop him from meeting with his own father.
Without knocking, Egg pushed the heavy doors open and walked inside.
“Yo, Minute, I’m back,” Egg said, pulling his hood down with his free hand.
In the room, there was a gorgeous chandelier above a beautifully adorned bed, the color theme was the same as the rest of the castle, keeping to colors that were reminiscent of the end dimension, which was long gone and dead by now. Purples, blacks, whites, tans, the whole shabang.
On a seat behind his desk sat Minutetech, the final remaining spawn of the End Guardians, and the King of the End Kingdom. Minutetech had his head resting lazily on one arm as he stared down at a document, pen in his other hand, ready to sign a rejection on whatever random bullshit another snobby noble wanted to waste precious tax dollars on. He looked up, a light that was absent returning to his eyes as he caught sight of his son.
“Egg, welcome back.” He said with a small smile as he put his pen down and stood to his feet.
“What, you’re not even going to try to tell me to stop sneaking out anymore?” Egg said with a smirk that made Minutetech let out a soft chuckle, before striding over to Egg and ruffling his hair, careful to avoid his eye.
“What use would that do? We both know you’ll just go anyway.” Minute paused for a second, probably hoping for Egg to somehow prove his statement false. When Egg did no such thing, he let out a tired sigh before walking back to his desk, pulling the chair on its opposite side out, and sitting down in his respective chair behind the desk.
“Sit. We should probably discuss your little project.” Minute said, shifting into a more serious tone, though not unfriendly.
Egg brightened and happily strolled over to his seat, eager to talk about his “project” as Minute liked to call him.
With a sigh, Minutetech began to speak.
“...Are you sure about this, Egg?”
Minute always asked this question, every time they talked about him. Egg felt no need to answer, because the answer was clear.
Minute sighed and continued.
“This seems like an awful lot of effort for a kid you’ve never talked to. Wouldn’t you rather study your books? I’ve even had new ones shipped all the way from the Nether kingdom for you.” Minute placated, sounding kinda desperate in Egg’s opinion.
“I’m telling you, Minute, you’ll understand once you see him for yourself. Wemmbu is… different. He’s… Perfect.” Egg stated it like it was a fact, because it was.
Minute looked at Egg with that look that meant he was regretting not letting Egg socialize more when he was a kid, as he had been way too worried about Egg's health to let him out of his sight for more than a minute, pun very intended.
Minutetech sighed.
“I just don’t think it’s fair to bring a normal kid into noble affairs. What you're doing will involve him in something much larger than he will ever know or understand. If you really, truly care for him, why not let him go?”
Egg sighed. Minute had said this time and time again. Ever since Egg had first seen Wemmbu, a year ago.
A mess is the best way he could describe the shell of a boy he had seen back then. Ever since that moment, Egg knew that Wemmbu would be his very best friend. His dearest someone. But obviously Minute wasn’t there to witness Wemmbu like Egg had. It’s a problem that’d sort itself out sooner or later once Wemmbu was finally hungry enough to accept Egg’s offer, but until then, Minute would remain a sceptic.
“Bro Minute, I told you, once you see him, you’ll get it. To answer your question, there is no freedom for him out there. I’ve watched him for a year now, and all he does is steal, eat, run, sleep, that’s not a life, that's survival, and it doesn’t suit him. He’s born for greater than that lowly fate.”
Minute gave him the look again, and Egg sighed. There was no use in arguing with him. It was pointless when Egg already knew Minutetech’s tune would do a complete 180 the second he laid eyes on Wemmbu. A true diamond in the rough, a boy who looked of royal blood, but wore rags, a true shame, but not for long.
“Whatever, more importantly, I actually talked to him today. I bumped into him when he was running from a Lawman and saved him from getting caught!” Egg said excitedly in one breath. Minute shot to his feet and approached Egg.
“Did the lawman do anything to you? Are you hurt? I knew I should have added more guards to your room.” The last bit was mumbled under Minute’s breath as he undid the clasp of Egg's cloak and searched him up and down for any scratches or bruises.
“I’m fine, Minute, chill,” Egg said, raising his hands placatingly.
Minute took the cloak and folded it on his arm, wrinkling his nose at the dirt and scuff marks clinging to it from when the lawman had pushed him.
“If you say so, Egg. But please. Try to be more careful next time.” He said, a furrow in his brow and clear worry painted over his void black face.
Egg nodded in response, feeling a chill go through him from the sudden cold of no longer being in his cloak, his princely regalia now on full display.
Minutetech laid the cloak onto his desk.
“So, I see you’ve brought something with you this time. Care to explain?” Minutes eyebrow raised in question.
“Oh, this?” Egg put the sack onto the table, where it sat alongside the cloak.
“Just a little push in the right direction.” He said plainly.
Minutetech squinted at him, confused. Then looked down at the bread.
“Why go and buy bread from the market?” Minute mumbled to himself. It was always a bad habit of his.
Egg said nothing. Minute was pretty observant. He’d figure it out on his own. A moment passed before Minutes' pure white eyes widened.
“Egg. I’m trying to be supportive here, but you can’t starve him.”
“Listen, Minute. I have a plan, I promise it’ll be alright. He will be alright. I would never hurt him. But he needs to realise he needs my help, or else he’ll never accept it.”
Minute stared at Egg for a long while before sighing.
“One week. You have one week to convince him, or I’m putting a stop to this.”
Egg sprang to his feet, alarmed.
“B-BUT MINUTE-”
Minute raised a silencing hand, and Egg trailed off mid-sentence.
“My decision is final. If I let this go on any longer, it’ll be detrimental to both you and that boy.” Minute said soothingly
Egg huffed and had to stop himself from pouting. He had grown out of that tantrum-throwing phase ages ago, and it would be an embarrassment to go back over something that wasn’t even a true denial. He could convince Wemmbu in a week, it was honestly probably for the best. He didn’t want Wemmbu to suffer, by no means, but after watching the kid for a year straight, he could tell he was stubborn.
“Alright, fine. But I want permission to say ‘I told you so’ once you finally meet Wemmbu and act worse than me.” Egg said with a cheeky grin.
Minutetech sighed and smiled softly at his son.
“Deal, just, don’t forget to take care of yourself, alright?”
“Deal.” They both shook each other's hands before Egg stood up and grabbed the sack and cloak off of Minutes desk.
“Goodnight, Dad,” Egg said before exiting the room, not without noticing the happy trill his father let out.
Egg walked to his room, which wasn’t too far from his father's, and luckily had a much smaller and more manageable door that he pushed open with one hand. He entered the room and hung his cloak on the hook near the door. The servants would enter tomorrow and see the disheveled thing and wash it for him.
He sat on his bed and stared at the sack in his hand. He finally had something of Wemmbu’s to cherish when he himself wasn’t nearby. Egg still felt giddy at having finally talked to him. Egg laid the sack on the other side of his large bed, not wanting to place it on the floor in case the servants mistook it for garbage. Egg laid down and stared at the ceiling.
“Soon I’ll bring you home, Wemmbu,” Egg said, and he knew in his heart that that was a promise.