FRICK GUYS

THIS IS LIKE FOUR THOUSAND WORDS XD

AND YEAH THE TITLE IS REMEMBER ME, FIGHT ME ABOUT IT

SHADLOX ON WATTPAD SUGGESTED "LOVE ME" BUT ALL I COULD THINK OF WHEN I READ THAT WAS YANDERESIMULATOR, SORRY, FRIEND XD

BUT THEN DALIATDM SUGGESTED "REMEMBER ME" AND HONESTLY WHY NOT XD ALSO WHEN I ABBREVIATE THIS ONE, LIKE RM, FM, AND BM, I'MA JUST TYPE "RRM" BC YEH

ALSO LET'S ALL GIVE A ROUND OF APPLAUSE TO SNOWFLAKEMANIAC ON WATTPAD FOR WRITING THE ALT ENDING SUMMARY THAT BASICALLY IS THE INSPIRATION FOR ALL OF THIS! LIKE DANG THANKS SO MUCH

IM HALF-MAD BC NOW IM TANGLED UP IN A FOURTH BOOK, BUT IM ALSO THREE-QUARTERS THANKFUL BECAUSE I REALLY DIDNT WANT TO LET THIS SERIES GO XD

WHAT DO YOU MEAN!? OF COURSE I CAN MATH!

ALSO, SINCE IM SO ATTACHED TO THIS UNIVERSE

HOW WOULD YOU GUYS FEEL ABOUT MAYBE POSSIBLY A ONESHOT BOOK AFTER THIS? BECAUSE I WOULDNT FEEL LIKE I WAS DRAGGING THE SERIES ON TOO MUCH, BUT I'D ALSO BE ABLE TO RETURN TO THE UNIVERSE AND WRITE TINY LITTLE ADVENTURES WHEN I MISSED IT

OPINIONS?

ALSO, TO ALL YOU FANFICTION DOT NET PEOPLE WHO ARE CONFUSED: IM SORRY. BUT TAKE THIS FOURTH BOOK ANYWAYS. XD

DEAR LORD THERE IS SO MUCH UNNECESSARY SETOSOLACE IN THIS

LITERALLY THIS ENTIRE CHAPTER IS PRETTY MUCH JUST SETOSOLACE WHICH LEADS INTO A SINGLE SENTENCE OF PLOT XD

OKAY IM DONE RAMBLING, GUYS

EN-JUH-HOY, MY BE-AY-YOO-TIFUL RULERS!

OH MY LORD YOU GUSY DONT UDNERSTAND HOW EXCITED IAM

MY FINGERS ARE LITERALLY SHAKING AS I TYPE THIS OMG IM SO FRICKING EXCITEDA JSLDKFJ SDFKLSD HFBDSKLJSDF

I LVOE YOU GUYS SO MUCHA SLDKFJSDKFSD

YOURE THE BEST AHHHH

*dies*

FRICK FRICK FRICK I ALMOST FORGOT

MINOR SELF-HARM TRIGGER WARNING

VAGUE MENTION/MEMORY OF SELF-HARM

IF THIS IS GONNA BOTHER YOU, JUST SKIP TO AFTER THE FIRST THREE SUNSHINES

Remember Me

Ch 1: Rewind

Seto's POV

"Brice!" I call out, smiling slightly as I reach out a hand toward him. "Mind coming with me to cast a spell on the city?" Never mind that it's the perfect opportunity to show off and try to impress him, it's an excuse to spend more time with him!

"No, I've got a thing planned with Annie," Brice answers, pausing before he leaves the lab. He doesn't turn around, so his back still faces me.

"Ah, all right." I force my smile to stay in place, despite the fact that he can't see it. Is he mad at me..? "Free afterwards?"

"Seto, I've got better things to do than follow you around being your little apprentice pet."

O-Oh.

"I- Sorry, I-"

"Hmm, sorry. Sorry. As if. You don't care, Seto," Brice spits. I bite the inside of my cheek and squeeze my eyes shut. "You never care, at least not about anything other than your potions and spells."

"Woah," I say, as though I'm perfectly fine, nothing more than surprised and confused. I swallow hard and clear my throat as inaudibly as possible. Keep it together, Seto. "Brice, I-"

"Only want me to tag along because I've got some of your stupid magic in me?" Oh my Notch. I feel sick. "I know, don't worry."

"I just want-"

He cuts me off again, and I dig my nails into my hands. "To get your magic back and be done with it. Notch, sorcerers are heartless."

My mouth drops open, and I forget to breathe for a couple of moments. No, no, no, not Brice. Not him.

"Listen, don't try to talk to me anymore," Brice continues, and I rub my sleeves against my eyes roughly to keep them from spilling tears. I can't cry. "I'd love it if I could avoid hearing from you ever again." Oh, Jeb.

"Brice," I whimper, cursing myself for showing such weakness, but Brice just walks outside, slamming the door behind him. Breathing too fast and too hard, I back up slowly, eventually running into the wall of the lab. Finally, tears streak down my face, and I gasp quietly as a few potion bottles around me shatter into tiny little shards. No, no, keep it under control! Oh, Notch…

I sink down to the floor, choking on sobs as a gust of purple wind blows over a cauldron of water and a purple swirl of light knocks over a brewing stand. No, no, no. I don't want to be that heartless sorcerer again. I want Brice to sit down in front of me and tell me that I do have a heart, that I can and do care, that I am worth something. I want Brice to pull me into a hug like he used to whenever he'd find me like this, broken down and crying and frantically rubbing at my left wrist and causing every inanimate thing around me to shatter.

I want Brice.

I bite my tongue and dig my nails into my wrist. Of course, the blood I believe I deserve doesn't come - there was only ever the one cut, from that one time, so very long ago. It's just a memory of a scar now.

A group of citizens had just finished trashing my lab, and I had walked in and caught them in the act. I hadn't had the heart to be mad at them - and I definitely didn't want to prove them right about me being a terrible monster. But, quivering in fear, they had left anyways the moment they saw me. And as they left, one of them called out, "You deserve this, Seto Sorcerer, you heartless piece of crap. You deserve a lot worse than this! You deserve to have lava poured over your spawn point!" And at the time, I had snorted and locked the door behind them.

But, afterwards. A few hours after they had left, when my lab was covered in glass shards because I couldn't bring myself to clean any of it up, when the whole house was far too quiet for my liking, when I had nothing but my own thoughts to keep me company. That's when I broke down. I collapsed on the floor, surrounded by shards of potion bottles, creating even more of a mess with my out-of-control emotions. And then I looked down at one of the glass shards, and I picked it up, and I couldn't stop repeating that citizen's words to myself: "You deserve this, Seto."

And then Brice had walked in through the back door, seen the mess, seen the blood, though there hadn't been much of it. And he had kneeled down in front of me and taken the shard out of my hands, and he had bandaged my wrist even though I kept telling him that I could just heal it as soon as I was calmed down enough, and he had swept the entire room and stuffed all the glass shards in his backpack. And then Brice had sat down in front of me again, and he had held my hands in his and made me look him in the eyes and promise I'd never do it again, because I deserved better. That's what he told me. And I told him it didn't even matter, because I'm a sorcerer and could just heal myself, and even if I had died, I would have just respawned. But Brice shook his head and said that, if I did this often, I would be killing my mind more than my body.

And, oops, I had started crying again. But Brice had held me, telling me over and over again that I was worth so much, that I'm so much more than all the citizens wanted me to believe, that I had a bigger heart than any of those terrible citizens, and that he cared about me.

And I think I fell in love with him that day.

And now here I am, in the same broken down position, except there's no Brice here to stop me, or to hold me. And yet… I made a promise.

But Brice isn't here.

Brice himself told me I was heartless, just like all those citizens used to. And so- so if one of the things he said back then has turned out to be void - does that mean all the others are void, too? I'm worthless. I'm so much less, even, than what the citizens used to think of me. I am heartless.

And Brice does not care about me.

Well. If all the other things are void, then perhaps the promise is, too. Perhaps just one more time wouldn't hurt-

The sound of heavy footsteps pounds outside the lab door, and I jump to my feet, snap my fingers to clean up the mess I've made, and then wipe my eyes and move over to set the potion brewing stand upright so that I'll look like I'm actually doing something.

"All right, there, Ty?" I ask as he throws open the door.

"Yes. Fine," he huffs. "I'm fine."

I snort and raise an eyebrow. "Sky?"

"Close."

"Ah, Tyler."

And so Ty continues on about Tyler, and I brush aside my stupid feelings that I'm not even supposed to be having, because they mess with my magic terribly. And I hand Ty a jetpack and joke around with him and fly us into the air and prepare for a suicide mission, because, hey, whatever. Worst case scenario, I get hurt. Best case scenario, I save the city. Win-win situation, honestly.

I only break down a few times in front of Ty, which is impressive, in my opinion, because I feel like curling up and dying in a hole. Brice means the world to me, though I prevent myself from showing it as much as possible, and- and my world just told me that he didn't want to hear from me ever again.

Oh.

Maybe he wants me to do the opposite of what I promised, then.

He doesn't want to hear from me ever again.

The Respawn Mechanism is off.

If I die, I will not come back.

Brice will never hear from me ever again.

He'll get his wish.

"Yeah, Ty. He totally cares about me. He totally cares about a heartless- h-heartless sorcerer." I bite my lip and taste blood, but quickly curl my lips in to hide in from Ty.

"Seto…" Ty trails off, and I think he's saying something else now, but I'm on autopilot, and I can't manage to focus on anything other than the fact that Brice would not care if I died today. I can fail this spell - I can put my everything into this spell - and when I inevitably fail and fall, Brice will not mind. Ty may be a little sad, but he'll be fine, physically - I've given him that jetpack.

"Seto, I don't think you should attempt this immediately after having a breakdown like that-" Ty begins.

"It wasn't a breakdown, I'm fine. I don't need Brice, okay?" I say, lying through my teeth.

"O-Okay..."

Ty cares. At least a little. It'd be pretty terrible - pretty heartless - of me to die in front of him.

Maybe I'll try to survive this...

Or maybe I won't.

I begin the spell. Purple magic wisps around me, and green specks representing the disease float up from the city. It's all going quite well - honestly, I'm quite proud of myself. I've never performed a spell with such a great effect over such a large range.

Notch, I can't wait to tell Brice!

Oh. Brice.

My magic falters a little, and I struggle to keep control as my emotions waver. Don't think about Brice! Don't think about Brice. Don't think about how he doesn't want to be your friend anymore. Don't think about how you'll have to join Skylox in the Broken Heart club. Don't think about how- about how Brice thinks- Brice thinks you're- you couldn't be in the broken heart club, anyways, because you- you're heartless.

Just a worthless, heartless sorcerer.

My magic betrays me, and Ty and I fall.

"Seto," Brice breathes, and I can't see anything but his still-black hair as he hugs me close to him. "Oh, Seto."

"Wha- Ah," I mumble into his hair, pulling back and glancing around the lab. "I failed the spell, didn't I? Figures."

"Seto," Brice cries, and my eyes go wide. "You- Stop it. Don't say that like - like you didn't just risk your life trying to save the city."

"It wouldn't have worked anyway," I mutter, sitting up completely and running my hands through Brice's hair. "Shh, it's all right. Are you all right?"

"Please don't leave me, I didn't mean it, I didn't mean it," he bawls, and I wince. I did this to him. I made him sad. Heartless, Seto. Worthless, Seto. Can't do anything right, Seto.

"L-Let me see," Brice says, interrupting my thoughts as he detaches himself from me and wraps both of his hands around both of my wrists. He smiles slightly upon feeling the unmarked skin. "I'm so sorry, Seto."

"You didn't do anything wrong."

"Oh, yes, I did," Brice laughs sadly. "I'm so sorry. I know you care. You care more than I do most of the time. You're not- not heartless, like they used to say you are. Like I said you are. You aren't."

I nod slightly, pretending to believe him.

"I'm so sorry," he says again, leaning forward, and then he pulls me toward him and soon we're kissing, his lips moving against mine so desperately, as though it's the last contact we'll ever have with each other.

But then he pulls back, eyes wide but certainly not wider than my own, and says, "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to- I didn't mean that, Seto. I don't- we're just friends. Sorry. I shouldn't have done that."

Right. Because how could he love you? He knows you couldn't ever love him back, you heartless sorcerer.

Can't do anything right.

It's quiet, too quiet in the lab. And I'm wishing I were there, wishing I could protect Brice, is he okay? Should I go to the asylum? It isn't safe, I told him not to go in there. He's going to get hurt.

I grit my teeth and go about making a few more potions - you can never have too many. But then I feel it, this desperate yearning for just a little more time, like someone out there is wishing for just a few extra moments to take care of unfinished business, to let go of too-secret secrets, to confess a feeling they've tried too hard to hide.

And then, against my will, my magic detects the person feeling it-

Brice.

"No!" I shout, shooting into the air and hovering there for a moment. The potions I was making explode in my hands, and I silently curse my magic. Brice is hurt! Brice is in trouble. Brice could be dying. How do I save him? What can I do? There isn't time to follow him to the asylum, and when I try to teleport to the asylum, some sort of barrier stops me from moving forward.

But if I can't move myself in - maybe I can move him out?

No, it's impossible. If I'm teleporting someone, I have to be able to have skin contact with them, and I also have to have consent. Neither of those conditions can be met at the moment.

So what else is there? I could, I could-

I could summon him.

I've never summoned a living creature before. I tried once when I was younger, and it ended terribly - the "lab" exploded, and I died immediately only to respawn in the crater left by my badly handled magic. But now…

It'll be like the city-saving suicide-mission all over again. It probably will not work.

But, for Brice…

I close my eyes, breathe out slowly, and try to picture Brice in my mind. "Summone B-R-I-C-E."

I cry out in pain as my magic drops me unceremoniously to the floor, and several potion bottles shatter around me. Come on, come on, work, do something right for once, Seto, please, just this once-

The room flashes purple, and the purple mist lingers as a figure appears in it.

"W-Wha- What is- how-" Brice sucks in a breath, glances up, jumps to his feet. "Seto!"

"I-I'm- I'm f-fine," I lie through gritted teeth, willing myself to get off my hands and knees but not exactly succeeding. "S-Sorry, I've n-never tried that before; s-summoning a living, breathing person is m-much more difficult than summoning an object." An understatement. "A-Are you-" I choke back a violent cough. "Are you okay, Brice?"

"Are you?" he asks immediately. "'Cause you don't look okay."

"F-Fine- I-I think- just- i-if you're up for it, we need to- need to do the others." I take in a shuddering breath and squeeze my eyes shut as I scratch lightly at my left wrist. Oh, Notch, he's not going to want to. I can't force him. I won't force him. I- I can do it on my own. I have to. "But if you're hurt, I-I can do it-"

"No, you can't," Brice says firmly. His voice drops to a whisper. "I'm sorry, Seto. I... I'm sorry. You're my best friend, and I... I shouldn't have stormed out and left you alone that day, I'm so sorry, I was being so stupid and I- I know you care about me, Seto, duh, you're the most caring person I know, and..." What is this, his second, third apology? How many will it take for me to actually start believing it? Admittedly, I get closer every time.

"T-Two things," I say, ignoring both the 'friend' comment and the way my stomach flipped anyways. "One: You don't know how much that means to me, Brice. Two: Our other friends are still in trouble."

His eyes widen, and now is not the time to be thinking about how cute he looks. No emotions. Only concentration. "Right! How?"

"Take my hand." Emotions off, dang it. "Try not to feel anything. If you must feel something, feel desperation to save your friends."

Uh, okay, this isn't going to work.

"Perhaps we should just, um... I'll put my hand on your arm?"

He blushes terribly, and I fight back a blush of my own. No emotions! Geez, I take such risks, working with him daily.

"All right. Not perfect, but it'll have to do," I mumble, closing my eyes. "My apologies if we begin to float. Summone S-K-Y, J-A-S-O-N, Q-U-E-N-T-I-N, I-A-N, M-I-T-C-H, J-E-R-O-M-E, A-L-E-S-A, T-Y-L-E-R. Potestatem transferre alica post – a fonte ad source duo."

The room flashes purple, and I scream.

"Brice," I gasp out, jumping up and then swaying slightly. Brice squeaks and quickly gets to his feet, holding onto my arm to steady me. "W-Wait- Alesa-"

"You shouldn't be standing," Brice warns me, and I look over at him to see tears leaving tracks down his pale cheeks. Why is he so pale? What happened?

"Are you all right?" I ask, furrowing my eyebrows and forgetting the urgency of the situation for a moment.

"Am I all right?" he sob-laughs, wrapping his arms around me tightly. Oh. "Please don't leave, please don't ever leave, I don't want to lose you, Seto, you mean so much to me..."

I swallow hard, and my eyes widen. "U-Um-"

"Promise me you won't ever die for real," Brice begs, sniffling and burying his head in my chest.

"I- Okay," I say dumbly. Brice laughs quietly, sniffling again.

"No dying allowed," he giggles, wiping his eyes and pressing a quick kiss to my cheek.

"I-I- Ah- I-" Oh, imagine how terribly I must be blushing. Luckily, since I temporarily transferred most of my remaining magical energy to Brice to protect him during the spell, my emotions aren't able to cause too much damage. Instead, the magic messing up my lab at the current time is tinted yellow.

"Oh, Notch, I-" Brice smiles awkwardly and scratches at the back of his neck. "Sorry. Just a friend thing."

Dear Notch- do my eyes deceive me? I- This boy is lying. He's lying. And that means-

I try to stop myself from literally glowing as I shake my head slightly and walk toward the sound of Sky's voice. "Seto!" Brice calls, running after me. He stays glued to my side as I pull him through the door. "Seto, wait, you need to rest!"

"We can't use the cake in the asylum," I huff, admittedly quite worn out by the walk to the door. "They tainted it, it's useless. However, I've just had the strangest dream..." I glance over at Brice, who smiles innocently, yet apologetically. Yeah, it's him. "And I need to know if Alesa has any of her medicine left. I suddenly recall having worked her vaccination into her most recent bottle of pills..."

I grin as Sky goes on a wild run to retrieve Alesa's medicine, and Brice laughs and laces his fingers with mine. He blushes incredibly afterwards, and my smile changes to a softer one.

If it wasn't already blaringly obvious that I'm in love with this boy, it certainly is now.

"U-Um- S-Since we're on the topic of dates, and all that-"

And in that moment, I can hear his emotions and his thoughts even louder than I can feel S- hmm. Louder than the thoughts and emotions of anyone else I've ever met. "He's going to say no, you've hurt him so much, Brice, oh, Notch, how could he ever forgive you-"

"If you're asking me to go on a date with you," I say bravely, refusing to let him put himself down any further, "I'd love to go on far more than one."

Brice faints, and I allow myself to smile as I catch him.

"Oh my Jeb, I'm holding your hand," Brice breathes, swaying slightly. I laugh and squeeze his hand. "And it's not even to keep you alive!"

Well. In a way, it sort of is.

I smile. "If you don't pick a place, we'll be walking around all day."

"I don't think I'd mind that so much, with you by my side," he replies, and I hold back a blinding grin.

"Well, in that case, I'm going to cast a hover spell on us both, because walking is hard."

"Ugh," Brice groans good-naturedly, and he's about to say something more, but someone interrupts him.

"Walking is hard? So is feeling, apparently, for monsters like you," a citizen hisses, and my eyes widen. Sure, there are still some citizens that don't like me, but the extreme Seto-haters are few and far between, and I haven't been approached by one in years. At first, I'm too surprised to be hurt by his comment.

Brice frowns. "This isn't your conversation."

"Notch, why are you hanging out with this-" he spits the next word, "-sorcerer? Are you on a date with it? Don't you know that it can't feel like you and I can? It'll never love you back." The citizen turns back to me and simply glares, as if my very existence personally offends him. I suppose it does.

Brice frowns even more, beginning to look a little angry, and I drop his hand and take a nervous step back, swallowing hard and gently running the index finger of my right hand over the scar on my left wrist.

"Seto can feel just as well as the rest of us," says a different, onlooking citizen. "And I'm fairly sure he feels a lot more than you do." The first citizen, the Seto-hater, cringes and steps back a little.

"Also," says a citizen with curly brown hair, sunglasses, and a pendant similar to Ant's, "I'd like to remind you that Seto's sorcererness has saved the lives of everyone in this city more than once."

"And," Brice finishes, and I wince in anticipation, "my boyfriend is not an it."

I gape at him as he pulls me closer and wraps his arms around me. "You're worth the world to me, Seto. Don't ever let idiots like this guy make you feel bad about yourself."

"HOLD UP," the third citizen shrieks. "YOU GUYS ARE DATING!?"

"S-So-" I clear my throat, ignoring the shouty guy. "So you really- you actually meant it? When you said you didn't mean any of the stuff you said... that one time."

Brice's eyes widen. "Oh, Notch, Seto, of course! I'm so so sorry I said all those terrible things, I- Can I tell you a secret, Seto?"

I raise an eyebrow. "Um... sure?"

"I love you."

"Oh, my Notch," I laugh, relieved, and the Seto-Hater sticks his nose up as though to say 'I told you so.' But then I continue with, "I love you, too. I've loved you for so long, Brice."

"Well," Brice replies, smiling slightly. "That went far better than expected."

"Oh my Notch," the shouty brunette citizen breathes. "It's canon. Holy crap, have you told Ashley!? She's gonna go ballistic!"

"You know Ashley?" I ask, pulling away from Brice slightly and raising an eyebrow.

"Um, yeah?" the shouty citizen snorts. "Holy crap, Setosolace and Skylox can totally double date!"

"Skylox..?" Brice asks.

"Oh no," Shouty Citizen whispers.

I frown. "Are you all right, sir?"

"Don't call me 'sir!'" Shouty Citizen screeches. "Oh, Notch, you guys don't remember me! Why don't you guys remember me!?" He freezes. "Does Ty remember me?"

"Um..?"

"Where's Ty!?"

"Why do you need to know?"

"Forget it, I'll find him myself!"