Title: an existence worth having
Prompt: Prompt 10—there's no place like home
Character/Pairing: Alice, Oz, Gil
Word Count: 600
Summary: And they say, goodbye, goodbye. This was a life worth having.
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Oz can feel his body slowly breaking apart. His blood, his bone, his muscles—all of it, dissipating into nothing. Nearby, he can tell Alice feels the same.
Alyss has already gone ahead—Alice will be a few seconds younger this time, he knows. She'll probably be displeased about it.
He's not sure if he should apologize or not, for all the things that happened. Both a hundred years ago and now—Oz has caused more heartbreak than he has any right to.
"I can see Gil," he says instead.
"I guess we should see stupid Seaweed head before we go," Alice snorts, still defiant to the end. "I bet he'll cry."
"Gil has always been an A-grade crybaby," Oz laughs, unsteadily walking forward. His body is kept together by pure will and thought—this is what a leg does, this is what an arm does. This is how a heart feels and a mind thinks.
As long as it stays together long enough for a few words, a last goodbye. That's all he needs. That's all they need.
Alice has an easier time of it, he knows. Even a hundred years ago, when she stabbed herself and started a cycle, she has always been a fighter.
"And now who's going to comfort him?" Alice shakes her head, and it's amazing how far they've come. That she can worry about him now.
(That she can care about him—he can still remember the insults and threats, both a hundred years ago and just a few months ago. Some things never change.
Some things change entirely.)
"I'm sure Vincent and Leo will," Oz replies.
The core bubbles next to Alice, apologetic and sad. "It's fine," Alice comforts it, smiling. "It's fine."
Those words do nothing to soothe it and he can feel energy flow from it to him. Gil appears, and it's enough, it's more than enough for a being like him.
Enough to have friends like this, to have emotions like this. A stuffed rabbit like Oz, living a life like this—it's a dream, a beautiful, long dream. He was never supposed to have all this.
And yet he does.
Alice forgave him. Alyss welcomed him.
And Gil, both back when he first popped out of the abyss and now, is waiting for him.
"It's your fault," he tells Gil, warm tears streaming down his face. Gil stops crying long enough to listen and he should never have taken in such a crybaby. It makes him want to cry harder. Alice is tearing up next to him. "That I'm crying."
"I'll wait," Gil promises, Gil declares. And it's stupid, to believe that this will happen. A hundred years is such a long time.
But it's Gil and Oz thinks he can believe in him. That he can always believe in him.
Gil will wait for him, Alice and Alyss will be with him—all of this is more than any rabbit named Oz deserved.
"I'll see you then."
No, a rabbit, a bloody black rabbit named Oz never deserved any of this. But he's not just a rabbit, not anymore. He's Oz, and he thinks that in a hundred years, he might not have to watch such a tragedy unfold.
In a hundred years, he can be just Oz and all of this happiness won't have to be edged with such a bittersweet feeling.