AN: "Of All The Lives You've Touched, You Taught Me So Much", title from Our Song by Goodnight Nurse.

Content warning: character death. Feel free to skip if that's not your jam.

When the sun rose on their last day, Perry brushed his thumb over Heinz's hand, having kept vigil throughout the night.

Heinz stirred, gaze immediately falling on his nemesis. "I don't know if I've said this before," he began, voice weak, "but, I love you. Always have." He smiled, softly. "Thank you, Perry the Platypus. For everything."

Perry, fur grey in his old age, returned the smile as warmly as he could, reaching over from his chair to clutch his nemesis's hand in his paws. It was a goodbye, he knew. His nemesis didn't have much time left. If he was honest, he didn't either, but he wanted to be here for Heinz until the last.

"Sure was a good few years, wasn't it?" Lying in the bed he'd been in for the last few days, Heinz exhaled, staring up at the ceiling. "You and me, we did a lot. Not just the thwarting, either. But there was a lot of that. And..." He looked down at the ring still firm around his finger. "I couldn't have done any of it without you. I really mean that. You... you saved me. And I don't just mean the times you literally saved my life. You, Perry the Platypus, are the reason I kept going."

Past tense, Perry noted with a tinge of sadness, and squeezed Heinz's finger. Reassurance that he was still there, he hoped. That he'd stay.

With what little strength he had left, Heinz pushed himself up to lean against the pillow, just high enough to look through the window. "Come on, Perry the Platypus," he urged, patting the space beside him, "there's room here, I bet you're still so nice and warm."

Unable to resist Heinz's charm even after all these years, Perry obeyed, jumping over to the bed on legs that weren't as good as they used to be, although still up to the task. Instead of curling into Heinz's side, though, he reached up, pressing a soft affectionate kiss to the corner of Heinz's mouth the way he'd done every morning for years.

Even the view from the window had been the same for such a long time, in this home they'd shared. The home they'd lived in and would move on in, neither of them willing to wait out the inevitable in hospital.

Heinz hummed at the contact and brought a hand up around Perry's head, capturing his nemesis's mouth in full, the movement easy. This, too, was habit, of years gone by. Years of happiness, of sadness, of joy and loss and solidarity, always there for each other. A promise, made at their wedding, and every day before and since.

"You get more handsome every day," he murmured after they parted, not for the first time, and scritched under Perry's chin. "I don't know how you do it."

Rolling his eyes, Perry draped himself over Heinz's chest, feeling the man's steady yet fading heartbeat under his palm. This was the only place he wanted to be, in the arms of his beloved nemesis.

With his actions alone, he'd proclaimed his love for his nemesis as many times over as there were stars in the sky or fish in the sea, or so it seemed. And yet it had never seemed like enough, not for this man who'd changed his life from the moment he'd stumbled into it.

"I really do mean it, by the way," Heinz murmured, his hand gently stroking down Perry's back, the movement automatic after so long. "About the whole love thing. Don't know why I never told you before now, maybe I was just too scared, thought you'd leave or something." He chuckled, a wry smile on his lips. "Bit late for that, now, isn't it?"

Perry nodded, his own smile fading. He'd suspected for some time that Heinz still struggled with believing he would stay, after all the pain the man had gone through before they'd met. But he himself had known, early on, that it would take someone stronger than him to end this. Heinz was everything he hadn't realised he'd needed, the person who'd opened up his life and shown him how wonderful it could be, the nemesis he adored with all his heart. Thus he would, could, never abandon Heinz, unless Heinz himself asked it.

Though Heinz had often considered asking Perry to leave, believing in his heart he didn't deserve such kindness as his nemesis gave him, he'd let it happen anyway, convincing himself at first that it was an Evil act to take something he didn't deserve. Before long, he'd proposed, supposedly as a trap to forever bind Perry to him, one he'd been sure would be thrown back in his face with a laugh.

The rings that had found their homes around their fingers, scratched and tarnished after all these years, said otherwise. Against his every expectation, Perry had stayed, sticking by his side no matter what.

Tears in his eyes, Heinz pressed a soft kiss to Perry's brow, still covered by the hat Heinz had come to know his nemesis by. "I'm glad you're still here," he admitted, running fingers through Perry's greyed fur. "Means I get to say goodbye."

The reason for this, Perry knew, was that Heinz had been abandoned and walked out on so many times in his long life, without so much as a farewell, and neither of them could bear for Perry to become just another example. No, Perry would stay to the end, give Heinz the closure he needed.

Heinz exhaled, a slow, shaky breath, trembling hands pulling Perry closer. Even now, Perry was his rock.

Chirring softly, Perry pressed his mouth to Heinz's for what he could tell would be the last time, pouring all his love and adoration into the gesture, every emotion Heinz had taught him to embrace so long ago.

When he let go, gently laying his nemesis back, a large hand captured his paws. One last trap.

Eyes shining, Heinz whispered the words that had come to define their relationship, more than any of the words he didn't, couldn't, say.

"Curse you, Perry the Platypus."

With that, Heinz breathed his last.

Perry bowed his head as the heartbeat below his palm faded into nothing, finally letting his tears fall. Everything Heinz had been to him, he kept in his mind, weeping for the loss of his best friend and greatest enemy, now that the man wasn't here to see it.

Many times before, he'd kept up a brave front, knowing his nemesis relied on his strength. Now, all the grief he'd been holding back hit him, bringing down all his careful walls, pulling him to his knees as he wept openly for the first and last time in his life. Heinz was gone. All the days he'd never spend with his nemesis now loomed ahead of him, real in a way they hadn't been only minutes ago, and he couldn't bear to face them.

He was tired. Exhausted, after the life he'd led. A life well spent, he knew. A life spent fighting Evil in all its forms. A life with few regrets, none of them that he trusted his nemesis.

If anything, he would have liked to trust his family sooner. They'd grown up under his watch, two fine young men and a fierce woman, adults in their own right. No longer in need of him to keep an eye on them. He'd said goodbye to them already, knowing he wouldn't have another chance.

Telling them his truth in the first place had been one of the most terrifying things he'd done in his life, but the encouragement of his nemesis, the honesty Heinz asked of him in every aspect of his life, had pulled him through. He owed Heinz, and he owed his family. By then, they'd grown up already, finding their place in the world.

By then, Heinz's two children had found their independence too, and Heinz had been so proud of the both of them. Perry too, not just of Vanessa and Norm but of Heinz as well.

By then, he'd known where his own place was: beside his nemesis. And there he'd stayed, no matter what, until the end. Would always stay, with the instructions in his will, a request for them to be buried together, in death as they'd been in life.

Wiping his tears, he reached over to the bedside table and the button left there, knowing his last job was done. He'd done what he could to ease Heinz's way, everyone else would handle things from there.

And so, with the relief of those who know the time has come, he let go. Heinz was sure to be waiting for him and he didn't want to be late.

AN: The next one should be much less sad.