Hello Nerdians! Welcome to the promised continuation of Regrets!
Also, one HUGE shout-out to ShiningOpal for reviewing every single chapter of The Bookcase (Which is the new name BTW, thanks to an IRL friend who suggested it. All your other suggests were awesome too) and managing to bump me up to 169 reviews. It's insane! I haven't even done a 100 review chapter yet but I might leave it to 200, which suddenly seems a LOT closer xD
After this, I'll attempt to do happier one-shots. They're all pretty highly requested at this point, seeing as I'm depressing you all.
Keep Laughing
A SlyPKC Fic
"It didn't work. The good luck charm- no matter how many times I repeated it."
Regret. One of the most painful, horrible feelings. And when the cause of that regret is always there, staring at you, not bothering to avoid you, it hurts even more.
Eddie was always a strong, happy man who wasn't knocked down easily. His one weakness was his utter devotion to his friends. If one was unhappy, sad, mad or sick, Eddie would do anything to cheer them up – something which had once ended up with him drunk in the Gumby suit falling down a staircase into a pile of bears.
Seamus cheated on James. Seamus felt terrible about it, James was desperate to bring things back together, and Eddie was devastated. He loved his friends – especially the sarcastic Irishman – and hated seeing them in such a state. He was hopeful when James tried to keep the relation going, but a guilt-ridden Seamus called it off, saying he was terrified of hurting James again.
Eddie hated seeing the two try to act as though it was all normal. James' smile was strained, Seamus never spoke, and both receded into a dark cave of despair. Despite Eddie's numerous efforts to lift their spirits and patch their relationship, the two remained apart… which is difficult to do when you see each other every day. It affected the other Creatures as well – some more than others. No one was their normal self for the longest time, except Eddie. Eddie kept grinning and laughing, nudging Seamus into the faintest of smiles and making James laugh. It was all Eddie could do – it was his coping mechanism. He couldn't help his friends together, which he hated, so he worked on them individually.
James eventually turned to Aleks and Kevin for more support and crawled out of his pit of despair, but to Eddie's horror Seamus seemed to slip down further. He started drinking far more than he usually would, not for enjoyment and a fun night but to simply not be. Seamus was becoming someone else – a person who would never smile, laugh, or carry an emotion. Seamus was no longer Seamus, and Eddie tried desperately to pull him out. But Eddie's grip was slipping and Seamus was sliding and Eddie couldn't even see the ground. Eddie was faced with a choice – let go of Seamus or let himself be tugged down into the endless hole along with Seamus. But it wasn't in Eddie's mindset to give up, so the ground beneath him began to crack and he started slowly to slip down.
Yet still, Eddie continued to laugh and smile as he tugged at Seamus' wrists to pull him out and save himself, and nothing could break Eddie's happiness and hopefulness that it would all turn out well. Eddie lost count of the times he stayed up all night by the window, watching for a star to come by for his wishes, or the amount of times he clutched his mother's good luck charm to his chest. Eddie refused to give up hope that he would save Seamus, and nothing was going to stop him from wishing.
So when a tear-stained and grim Aleks came to Eddie's door one morning and told him Seamus had drunk himself to death, Eddie laughed. He laughed and laughed and laughed, and all Aleks could do was hug him as Eddie sunk to the ground, laughing and crying. Seamus had finally slipped free and he had fallen far, and Eddie couldn't see him anymore. The darkness had swallowed him whole, and Eddie was stuck on a crumbling ledge to wait until he fell down to join him.
At the funeral, Eddie kept a huge smile plastered on his face. As he stared down in the open casket, his smile only faltered once. Seamus' dead body was like one massive representation of his regret: Regret he hadn't saved him. Regret he hadn't seen his fate sooner. Regret he couldn't bring his best friend back. Eddie had to turn away and tried to walk out, but Seamus' father stopped him and screamed at him for smiling, saying he was disrespecting Seamus, and an uncle had to drag him away before he tried to punch Eddie. Eddie just giggled and stumbled outside of the room, leaning against a wall and staring at the bright world. The sun was shining brightly and birds sang a mournful tune as the butterflies danced among the flowers, and Eddie hated it.
Seamus would've wanted it raining and dramatic. Seamus wouldn't want to be cremated because he'd said numerous times he wanted to be around for the zombie rising. Seamus wouldn't want to die. Seamus wouldn't have wanted to lose James and –
Eddie shattered. The dam collapsed and tears streamed like a river from his eyes as he let out one heaving sob, sliding down the wall and burying his head in his knees. Eddie cried and cried and cried and for the first time in forever, he couldn't laugh because Seamus was gone.
With a silent snap, the ledge crumbled and Eddie fell down, hoping and praying he'd see Seamus at the bottom.
So... do you like? I'm pretty proud of it :) I'm trying to introduce more metaphors too, because metaphors are apparently really awesome. The whole "Falling in a hole" thing is kinda sad and all but I like it.