(Author's note: Acebladespades on tumblr asked: Whump prompt: Leaning against someone

Tiso and God Tamer

I adore this two as pairing, but I am not too sure if I wrote this very shippy. Feel free to read it as either friendship or pairing, but I think I see it more as friendship. Maybe a romance blooms between them, who knows?

Anway, please enjoy.)

She didn't even know why she headed down the cliff.

Day after day, different bugs would come into the coliseum. They would fight for geo, they would fight for glory, they would fight for fame, but almost all of them ended up as corpses on the cliffs, being kicked out to keep the arena nice and clean, to ensure that the mechanisms would work as intended.

Surely he also would be a corpse lying on the cliffs. She had seen how he had been collected, having been kicked out. If not her glaive had killed him, so would have the fall.

Still, she headed down, searching for the telltale blue sign of the hood he had been wearing. She just needed to know. It had been so long since someone had managed to challenge her. She, called the God Tamer, was the current master of the trial of fools and it could have very well been here that she had gotten kicked out to rot on the cliffs.

She still didn't really know why she was searching for him. What had his name been? Tiso or something? He surely had boasted in front of her, before the combined power of her glaive and her beast had put him into his place.

Still, there had been something else about him. A feeling that she couldn't really align somewhere. There had been something in his eyes, that just didn't leave her mind.

She surely would feel better if she saw his corpse and could forget about him once and for all.

As she was still heading down, searching, more bodies fell. Another fool had started the challenge, not hers obviously, hers would never start without her present. The impact of the bodies left and right, stirring up the ashes made it hard to see, so that she hinged down the visor of her helmet, suppressing a cough as the ash threatened to fill her lungs.

She moved a little further away from the centre, more to the left and as she was about to drop down to the next foothold, she saw it. The telltale blue hood.

She dropped down as fast as she could, hoping that she would find peace upon finally being able to see the corpse and then return to her duties in the coliseum. She just... she needed to be sure, that was all. She opened up the visor of her helmet a tiny bit to get a better look at him, when she saw and heard it. A tiny stir and a low groan.

Her first instinct was a slight shock, then she felt utterly relieved. She hadn't killed him. Why was she even so happy about it? She should be ashamed, she must have lost her edge when she hadn't finished the job.

Still, that he was still alive calmed her somehow, but he wouldn't stay alive much longer when nobody took care of his wounds.

She kneeled down and spoke: "Hey. Can you hear me?"

There was only another groan as response.

"You don't look like you are able to walk.", she said and then moved to help him up, carefully avoiding the stained part on his front, where his shell had cracked and milky white blood was seeping out. "Come, lean on me.", she commanded, feeling the weight of him as she hefted him up. There wasn't a bench nearby and the coliseum was too far up, she would need to get him into one of the alcoves, where the primal aspids wouldn't lurk. The one where the tail of that giant, Bardook resided, felt like the best bet.

As she started walking, Tiso's shaky feet stumbling along with her steady steps, he managed to find his words.

"Why?", was the only word he spoke.

"I don't know.", God Tamer replied, truthfully. She knew that he asked her why she saved him, after she had nearly killed him. Not why he had lost to her or why he had been tossed out to the cliffs. He had known about the risk. "We can talk later, after your wounds are patched up.", she continued and led Tiso to the alcove, grateful that someone or something had dispatched of the primal aspids recently. They would be back soon, but for now, her path was without hindrance.

Once they had arrived at the intended location, God Tamer laid Tiso down, letting him lean against a wall, getting a first aid kit out of her armour. As the champion of the coliseum, she always had to be prepared. She made quick work, cleaning the crack on his shell, which made him hiss in pain, and then bandaging the whole deal with some silk that the gladiators coming from Deepnest provided.

Then, she just stayed kneeling in front of him, not knowing what to say or to do. Technically she should just leave. There was nothing for her to do anymore. Tiso would be able to challenge the coliseum again once he healed up, if he dared. She was halfway on her feet when he repeated his earlier question.

"Why?"

"I... I don't...", God Tamer sighed, a deep sigh. She knew the reason. She knew it very well. "You impressed me.", she admitted. "It has been so long since someone managed to get far enough to fight me. I... when you fell, I felt... disappointed at first... and then.. guilty."

For some reason, God Tamer had felt guilty about not having fought him head on, even though it wasn't a noble duel between them, but a dirty fight in a lawless zone. She had the feeling he would have deserved that duel though.

"I came to make sure that you had died.", she admitted further. "Only to see that you haven't. I couldn't... let you lie there like this..."

"I see.", Tiso said, no humour in his voice, "Don't expect any thanks, you brought me into this state to begin with."

"I... I am aware, yes.", God Tamer hated how much her voice wavered. She wasn't used to such conversations anymore. Most of the population was infected and the gladiators didn't talk much. She mostly had her beast to talk too and while she still could control it, the infection long had clouded its mind as well and so it would never answer to her.

An awkward silence spread between them, only broken by Tiso's raspy breaths.

"May I ask you something?", God Tamer suddenly said, wanting to break the silence between them.

"You probably will even if I say no.", Tiso just said. God Tamer didn't waste time to be offended, he was right.

"Why did you fight in the coliseum?"

"What kind of question is that?", Tiso replied, coughing a little, averting his eyes to not look into her face. "It should be obvious."

"Fame, glory, most of the fools come for it.", God Tamer said. "You must have seen them on your way here. The corpses we kicked out. The ones who didn't make it."

"Yes, because it is so hard to overlook corpses falling from the sky.", Tiso retorted, rolling his eyes, "Or the ceiling. This place doesn't even have a sky."

He apparently was better already when he was in the mood to react with such dripping sarcasm. "Anyway...", God Tamer crossed her arms in front of her chest. "You can tell me hundred times you came for fame and glory, I know it wasn't your only reason. I could see it in your eyes."

It was Tiso's turn to sigh now. "So you figured, huh?", he said and then raised an arm, the arm in which he was still clutching his weapon, a shield. It was rare for any bug to use a shield as a weapon, most of them preferred nails and the ones without would use their claws or toxins. She had seen him use it like a boomerang. Though, what did the shield had to do with his reasoning?

"It's about your weapon?", she asked.

Tiso let out another sigh, this time sounding more frustrated than before. "Not the weapon itself, but what it is made off."

God Tamer narrowed her eyes and then took a closer look at the shield. It looked nothing out of the ordinary at first, but when she noticed, a gasp escaped her. That weapon clearly had been made out of the shell of another bug.

"So, you figured.", Tiso said dryly.

"Who were they?", God Tamer asked in return, there clearly was a story behind the shield.

"My friend...", Tiso said after a long pause, so long that God Tamer already thought that he would never talk. "We were both in the search of a challenge, to fight at a place that was tough enough for us, so that we could challenge each other in the end. He... he died while protecting me before we even reached Hallownest. I had promised to him that I would be victorious in the coliseum."

God Tamer didn't had any words to say after Tiso was finished with his story. What should she say? Words of comfort? They would feel empty and hollow, especially after she had been the one to crush his imminent victory. Instead of saying anything, she leaned herself against the wall as well and then slowly slid down until she sat next to him.

Minutes must have passed before she found her words again.

"I am sorry."

"For what?", Tiso asked.

"For treating you just like another corpse."

"Hey...", Tiso started, "You have come looking for this corpse, right?"

That made God Tamer smile. "I guess.", she said.

They fell silent again, but this time the silence wasn't awkward, but kind of comfortable. Eventually, God Tamer got up.

"I should head back to the coliseum.", she said. "You are safe here for the time being. You shouldn't move too much until the wound had closed. And once it has, I am awaiting you in the coliseum."

"No thanks.", Tiso replied. "I think I am done with the coliseum for now."

They both just stared at each other and then chuckled, Tiso's being broken up by coughs.

"I fear I am not done with you though.", God Tamer said. "I will come back to check on you and I better not see you move elsewhere." She turned around and without looking back, she said: "See you later.", before heading back to the coliseum.

She still didn't know why she had checked on him, but she didn't regret that she did.

(Author's note: The thing about Tiso's shield being his dead friend was a concept from the original designer. It never made it into the game, but I like this detail and decided to keep it.

Also, why is Tiso so sarcastic? He just turned out like that! I don't know what happened!

Next whump prompt will be Dark Souls for a change.)