Chapter Text
All Ivan had to do was keep the song going long enough for help to arrive, and then both he and Till would be free at last. That’s it. He knew he could do it. Mizi wasn’t kept in the facility anymore, so Till wouldn’t stick around for her this time. Till was also so out of it that they could just grab him and explain later. That was easy enough.
Just one more performance, Ivan thought as he brushed non-existent dust off his all-white outfit. One more, and they’ll come to find us. He didn’t know what hope was, really. But when they had nothing left to lose other than themselves, he clung to the idea of it. He tried to imagine a future with them being free of owners to abuse them, of competitions to destroy them and the people they cared about. He wasn’t sure he could, but it was nice to imagine, anyway.
He didn’t know that Till would choose him in this presumed happily ever after. Maybe Till would disappear somewhere else. Maybe Ivan wouldn’t be able to follow him. But just getting there was the hard part, so Ivan tried not to think about it too much. He wanted Till to have a future to choose, first.
But as Ivan took his time getting onstage, he realized that Till was off his game even more than usual. All the drugs that the Segyein were pumping into Till’s system to keep him going and to stop him from attacking the Segyein were bound to fuck with him more than they bargained for, even if they somewhat tried to be careful not to damage his genius. He just sounded tired, and like he’d given up. There was no fight, no fire. And as Ivan walked up to the second microphone, he could see the ever-present beaten look in Till’s eyes.
Till had been like that since Mizi went missing during her match against Luka. And the Segyein had tried to drug Till’s emotional pain out of him.
It made Ivan furious. He hated that the Segyein had done this to Till. The Segyein didn’t ultimately care who or what they had on their hands. Beauty and skill were replaceable with whatever they could buy and hype up next week, and Anakt Garden and all the other training grounds were always raising new merchandise. After this competition was over, there would be more. And more.
It was hard not to be mad at Mizi, too, despite everything. Ivan had been friends with her as well, and missed her, and it wasn’t her fault that Till’s worship of her left him in disarray in her absence. But it was hard to see Till falling apart without sometimes having harsh thoughts about his absent friend, even ignoring his own familiar feeling of loss. Ivan was the one who had to watch, alone, as Till become first upset, then angry, then a husk in her wake. And nothing Ivan did could snap Till out of it. No conversation about food, music, or jokes, no encouragement to draw… Nothing.
Ivan started singing as the rain drummed on his hair, and wished for the thousandth time he had a single ounce of whatever it was that attracted Till to Mizi. Was it her smile? Her beauty? Her kindness? Ivan had tried to mimic all of those things, though he struggled with the kindness part. But no matter how much Till warmed to him, there was only one heavenly body Till turned to at the end of the day.
Ivan got that, to a degree. Everyone had their stars to follow.
Till was handsome as ever in the outfit he’d been assigned, but it also highlighted how worn out he seemed. In the downpour, he seemed to visibly droop. The Segyein didn’t let him have a guitar this time: Ivan imagined they didn’t trust what he’d do with it, which was kind of hilarious given how one of the singers was meant to be shot to death, slowly, in front of a live audience.
Doubtless it’s to save on equipment replacement costs, Ivan thought as he gazed ahead. He wondered what Segyein accountant did the math on that.
There seemed to be so much distance between Ivan and Till, but Ivan was ready to leap into action when he needed to. Their would-be rescuers had contacted him for this, and Ivan planned to do his best.
Ivan didn’t push to take over the song completely. He tried to lure Till into being more active. But every time Till had his moment, he was just so tired. So defeated.
It hit Ivan that they couldn’t do this. Through the rain and the lights, Ivan couldn’t fully see the crowd, which wasn’t unusual. He didn’t care anyway: his focus was on Till.
But the crowd would be disappointed. Till’s score would go down. The guards would come out. It would be over. Ivan knew he wouldn’t survive seeing Till’s battered corpse.
Ivan gazed at the near-invisible crowd before him and knew that he’d come onto this stage hoping it’d be the last time he’d have to do this. But also knowing it might not be the last because he was rescued, but because the whole thing had failed.
But I’ll get Till off this stage for good, Ivan thought. No one will touch him again. He’d made those assholes in the bar suffer too little for what they did to Till. But at least they hadn’t had guns.
Ivan knew he was fragile, too. After everything he’d done to get stronger, he was still too weak. But he’d use everything he had if it meant helping Till escape.
Ivan looked at Till, who was still gazing despondently ahead, as if he’d already accepted the outcome of his loss.
Ivan knew he couldn’t replace Mizi, no matter what. But there weren’t all that many ways to force Till’s score up without getting them both killed. He didn’t have the rage Mizi had when she went after Luka, or at least Ivan couldn’t direct his rage at the system at Till.
But if he had to go out with a bang, then he’d do it properly.
He shoved his microphone aside and walked towards Till, who was completely ignoring him.
The lights went off. The artificial rain shut down. Smoke filled the air and the robot guards scrambled.
Ivan breathed in deeply and kept walking to Till. He grabbed Till’s thin arm, but gently, finally making Till look at him in some surprise.
Till’s eyes were so empty. He didn’t care what Ivan did to him. He seemed so small. So easy to break.
Ivan remembered how excited Till had been when they almost escaped the garden. The joy of his drawings. The way Till worked so hard to perfect his music.
If it’s gone forever, Ivan thought while frowning, I don’t care. He can live free somewhere else. He’ll find something new to love, even if it’s not me. He’d seen too many singers shot down by the Segyein. He wouldn’t let Till become one of the dead, at least not here.
Noise from backstage started to fill the air. The guards were fighting someone – probably Ivan and Till’s rescuers. It gave Ivan some hope, and he tried to pull Till back there. They didn’t have time to explain, and he didn’t want to give hints to their captors about what they were planning.
Fog filled the air, and it smelled a little off, like smoke from a fire was mixed in with it. The crowd became more restless, and now Ivan could hear their shouting.
Till followed Ivan slowly, stumbling a little. Ivan was holding Till tightly enough that he felt Till stiffen at the sight of a woman with short pink hair appearing out of the fog. Till’s eyes widened, and his lips parted in shock.
And because Till was so distracted, only Ivan’s good ears heard the gun prepare to fire. He shoved Till forward and felt a burning in his side that made him stumble forward. He pushed himself up from the ground, to go help Till, but his balance was off, and the fog made it hard to see properly.
Big hands pulled him up and dragged him out, and Ivan tried to fight them, but they were a lot stronger than he was. He’d been pushed and shoved everywhere since he was little and had been grabbed off the streets. He wouldn’t let them stop him from saving Till, even if he died in the doing.
“Relax,” a human voice said in his ear. “We’re the good guys. We got you.”
Ivan blinked and looked at the man holding him.
A muscular, blonde, pale-skinned human wearing a backwards baseball cap smiled at him. The man had Ivan’s arm around his shoulders, and didn’t seem bothered at all by the extra weight.
Ivan looked forward and saw who he realized was Mizi and Hyuna helping Till along. Mizi’s face turned to Till in concern, then back ahead. Hyuna was unmistakable. They were all moving quickly down a dark corridor.
But Till was walking. His arm squeezed Mizi’s jacket.
He’s alive, Ivan thought happily. He’s alive. We’re going to be okay.
The fog made Ivan a bit loopy, and he lost track of things. He woke up in some kind of large moving vehicle, leaning on someone’s right shoulder. When he blinked his eyes open, he could mostly only see darkness, save for a small artificial light to his left. He felt the bump of the road beneath the vehicle as they moved along.
“…You awake?” A familiar, quiet voice he adored asked.
Ivan’s heart raced. He looked over and saw Till staring ahead next to him, but not moving. Till was so close that Ivan could count his eyelashes, even in the near-dark.
Till still looked tired. But there was a slight fire in his gaze that hadn’t been there earlier.
“…Yeah,” Ivan said, loath to move away when Till was letting him lean. “Where are we?” He honestly didn’t care, so long as Till was alive.
“On our way to the safehouse,” Till said, quietly. “We’ll be there soon. They bandaged you up and said you’d need to rest.”
Ivan could feel the injury on his side. And when he looked down, he could see his all-white clothes were a mess of blood and tearing. He wanted to laugh, because he was happy, too. He hoped he’d ruined them beyond use. The Segyein had given him very few actual good things – Till, Mizi, Sua – and their clothing and tournament could burn.
“You saved my life,” Till said, sounding incredulous. He stayed close, though.
Ivan smiled. “I guess. But the others did all the work.”
“You kept letting me carry the song,” Till said. “You didn’t have to.” He sounded annoyed, then.
Ivan winced, wondering if he’d twigged Till’s pride. “You’d have died if I hadn’t.” The thought was too gruesome. He had nightmares of Till dying in various ways over the years.
Till sighed in exasperation. “Yeah. They said you had to do it to give them time, and this wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.”
Ivan liked how warm and comfortable Till was. Ivan never wanted to move, even if he got a permanent crick in his neck or something.
“You pushed me out of the way of the shot,” Till said, sounding frustrated. “Even after everything I did the last time you tried to save us…”
Ivan breathed in, pushing aside old wounds. “You didn’t do anything.” Till had been a kid, too. They all made mistakes. And ever since, they’d been surviving. And there were plenty of good moments in between.
“I ruined things,” Till insisted. “You could have been out sooner.”
Ivan smiled, sadly, not wanting to think too much about what might have been. “But then you wouldn’t have been.” His life wasn’t worth living if Till wasn’t in it.
Till sucked in a breath.
Ivan prepared for the rejection. To be shoved away. He got Till out. That’s all that mattered. And he could think about sleeping like this for the rest of his life, propped up against Till, even when he was alone.
An arm wrapped around Ivan’s back, pulling him a little closer.
Ivan’s eyes widened in shock. The arm was small, but warm, and firm.
“You’re a reckless dumbass,” Till said, sounding annoyed. “That’s cool. Go back to sleep. I’ll wake you when we get there.”
Ivan felt shaky. He didn’t know how else to describe what was in his chest. He hadn’t known hope since he was first purchased, and the rest of his life had eroded any remaining traces of it.
“Let me protect you for once,” Till said, rubbing Ivan’s side with a thumb. “Sleep.”
Ivan swallowed and nodded, settling into Till’s side. “Thank you,” he finally said, quietly. “Thank you for coming with me this time.”
Till breathed in deeply, but said nothing.
Ivan smiled and shut his eyes, content.