When Null opened his eyes the following morning, he realized that Apex had curled up around him. He had to wriggle a bit to try and escape, only to realize very quickly that it wasn't happening. Apex had put one paw on his tail and was laying on one of his wings. In other words, Null was pinned under his bulk.

Well, only one thing for it.

"Apex!" Null shouted.

Apex jumped, startled awake. He hit his head on the makeshift roof Null had made yesterday, causing it to collapse to one side. He stood there, fins spread in a panicked reaction, only to calm down a moment later. His eyes were open, but they weren't mangled orbs like last night. Dull and unfocused, yes, but whole. Without spirit gems, in only a few hours.

"That was rude," Apex whined.

"You were sitting on my wing." Null flapped the wing in question, wincing as feeling returned all at once. Pins and needles prickled all along the limb, and he waved it a few more times hoping the sensation would go away. "And my tail. I couldn't even move."

"...Sorry," Apex said sheepishly, "I just wanted to make sure you were safe."

"I'm not a hatchling, Apex. I can be trusted to sleep on my own without choking on my tongue."

"Right. Sorry." Apex ducked his head, mollified.

Null stretched a bit, wincing as his back popped. That had hurt more than expected. Getting launched along a wall at high speed wasn't good for your spine, apparently.

"How're you feeling?" Null asked.

"Pretty awful, but I did drop out of the sky the other day so anything other than dead is a positive." Apex went to extend his wings, only to stop. "Oh, you splinted them. Thanks. But yeah, uh, everything hurts, my vision's still blurry, and the underside of my wings itch real bad for some reason."

"Blurry's an improvement over gone," Null muttered, "And you're growing another set of wings, as impossible as that sounds."

"I'm sorry what?!"

"When I checked yesterday, your eyes were utterly destroyed. They were dissolved by acid so badly that they would never have been usable again, no matter how many spirit gems you used. This morning your eyes are intact, even if they don't work properly… yet," Null explained, "And as I said, you're growing a second set of wings under your first. They're not anywhere near fully grown, but they're there."

"...I'm sorry, that doesn't sound like it's real. I believe you, but like, life has stopped having any semblance of sense over the past month."

"I don't know what else to say. Maybe it has something to do with that thing you did last night with the purple lightning." Null shrugged.

"Right. About… that…" Apex looked pensive. "I have no idea."

"It wasn't wind magic, that's for sure. I have no idea what that was." Null frowned. "It reminded me of what happened in the soul gem cave. All that magical discharge from the big gem."

"...Now that you mention it, I have felt different since then," Apex said slowly, "Like… more impulsive. No, seriously. Don't laugh. More impulsive, more aggressive, quicker to anger and to act. It's like all those little urges in the back of my head are louder and harder to ignore."

"I guess they occasionally jump out and shoot impossible magic at bad guys too," Null said wryly, "Yeah that makes about as much sense as anything else. So what happened? How'd we get here?"

"I… I'm gonna be honest, I'm not sure how things went from 'fight in the arena until things change' to 'ship exploded'. I think it might fit together better if you gave your side first?" Apex suggested.

"I suppose that makes sense. Let's see," Null sat down. "So right after we split, I was made into a slave and forced to do menial labor. Krawl - you know who Krawl is, right?"

"Creepy centipede dude, way too many arms. Sits on a big chair at the arena."

"Exactly. Krawl wanted to keep me close and in good condition to motivate you. He found your first performance rather impressive, and decided that keeping you on your game was important. So I got given an easier job than most slaves. Then the tidestrider attacked."

"Oh I heard about that afterwards! All anyone would tell us in the prison was that one of the slaves managed to kill a dangerous monster."

"Yeah, well, hi. Monster slayer here. It was an elemental, actually. Cut down one of the masts before I managed to grab its heart crystal. Apparently that impressed Krawl, because he invited me to his office the next day and had me read a cursed scroll. He was convinced it was a treasure map, but nobody could read it."

"Except you, because you're immune to magic."

"Actually you could've read it too -,"

"If I knew how to read." Apex sighed melodramatically, putting one paw to his forehead. "What a tragedy."

"Shut up!" Null laughed, the first time he'd actually let himself do so in a long time. "Well, if you weren't illiterate, you'd be able to read it. The spell made it so only dragons could read the scroll. I told Krawl it was the blueprint for some kind of holographic map, but it was actually instructions on how to build a distress beacon that called to Warfang and a powerful explosive device that did more damage to creatures and objects full of magic. I had just activated the beacon when Krawl returned early from an arena match. Silver, the first mate, tried to mutiny, but Krawl shot him dead since he's excessively armed -,"

"Snrk."

"Yeah, ha ha, Krawl found that one funny too. I wound up detonating the explosive in order to keep Krawl from gutting me. Last I saw, he was deep fried and the ship was falling apart. Then I hit my head. What happened?"

"Well, before we go any further, I have something very important to say," Apex said solemnly. He let out a heavy sigh, then looked Null dead in the eyes. "Null. I'm gay."

Null blinked, nonplussed. After a moment he cleared his throat.

"I… know? You told me years ago that you were interested in drakes rather than dragonesses," Null replied, confused.

"Nononono, I mean I finally learned that there's a word for it! That there are people of all races that are gay, too! I had no idea!" Apex let out a relieved sigh. "And to think Dolus drilled into my head that I was uniquely different. Jokes on him, he's outnumbered by gay folks. It just makes me feel a lot better about the whole thing."

"Oh." Null felt guilty now. He'd known for years about this - nobody could read the entire library the old schoolhouse had, except for that time Null absolutely had. There was no way for Dolus to censor all of it. "I, uh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize. I thought you knew…"

"It's okay!" Apex assured him. "I didn't ever think to ask, you had no reason to think otherwise! Anyways, Nero told me about it, and how there's sort of a thing where gay people 'come out' to those they care about so I wanted to be sure you were the first person who knew. Uh, officially."

"Well that's great!" Null smiled. "I'm happy that you feel more comfortable with yourself."

"Yeah…" Apex smiled for a bit, then went silent for a bit. He blinked a few times, then looked at Null with his brow furrowed. "Hey, I just realized my vision's no longer blurry."

"Also good news." Null nodded. "Speaking of, how did that happen in the first place? What happened after I was knocked out?"

"So, the arena match that Krawl was supposed to be at when you turned the beacon on? Yeah, that was mine. My only real loss in the arena, too. I was fighting some giant scorpions, and one of them shot acid out of its tail. Straight into my eyes. It was the most painful thing I think I've ever felt. I wanted to die." Apex shuddered, clenching his eyes shut in remembered pain. "Um. Right. So after the bomb went off, the entire ship started falling. I grabbed the figurine Ch'Tara made for me and Nero started guiding me out of there. Wasn't very fast, I couldn't see and my wind-sense was all screwed up from the pain and the fires everywhere. Arachne - she's a giant spider. Creepy, but actually really nice - she picked me up and carried me to the top of one of the masts. That's when the dragons showed up. Dunno who they were, but they said they were from Warfang and they arrived through a complex wind spell that nullified air resistance and used a slipstream to let them move super quickly. They picked us up and one of the dragons - she was carrying you - cast that wind spell again to get us to Warfang quickly.

"That's, uh, that's when things went really wrong. The dragon carrying you, she…" Apex swallowed before he continued. "She dropped you."

"So Warfang sends two dragons to investigate a distress beacon and they drop us out of the sky," Null said bitterly, "Great."

"Warfang didn't send them, actually. They talked about leaving before the council could make a decision, so they were acting on their own. And I think carrying you made it a lot harder for her to keep up her spell. It really shouldn't have been that energy-intensive, but it was getting smaller and smaller as they traveled. She kept saying that you needed a healer as soon as possible, but… eventually the wind tunnel ripped you out of her paws." Apex paused for a moment, reorienting his thoughts. "Um. I wasn't dropped. I pulled myself from the other dragon's claws. He wasn't expecting that.

"After that… I don't really remember. I had to catch you. I needed to catch you. I think I broke the wing braces, and my statuette is gone. But I'm pretty sure it was already falling apart."

Null took a deep breath. Nearly the cause of his own demise, huh? Even unconscious he ruined everything he touched. Wonderful. "Your statuette exploded into a million tiny splinters when you hit the ground. I had to remove each one from your paw individually."

"Ah, that's why it stings when I clench it." Apex looked down at the offending paw, frowning. "My eyes grow back in a couple of days but tiny splinter holes still hurt the next day? Thanks, magic healing force. Real consistent."

"It's also growing you some extra wings, so that's… weird," Null added.

"Yaaay…" Apex groaned, "And now I'm starving."

"Give me a minute and I'll go find something." Null stood up and winced. His back still hurt.

"Actually, I need to get some exercise. Stretch my legs," Apex said, "You wait here. I'll be back quickly."

Before Null could say anything, Apex was bounding off into the woods. Null frowned to himself, pondering just how good an idea that was. Probably not a good idea at all. But Apex seemed to be able to heal from anything and he had always been stronger than Null, so he'd probably be fine.

That left Null to… do… nothing. There was no point repairing the shelter because they would be moving on from this spot later today. He could poke around the revenant's body, but it really was just a mass of amalgamated bone in a stone shell. He couldn't even tell what species the bones were from, molded together as they were. It was unnatural.

Though, most things with elementals were. And undead. Maybe most things thought of as undead were actually elementals? No, that didn't make much sense. Many undead were just bones, or completely lacked bodies, or were made of shadows. No purple crystal to focus the elemental around.

Even the Mycego had been an elemental centered on a purple crystal, though its crystal had been a much lighter shade of purple, and far less spiky. The dark purple of aggressive elementals hadn't been there. Maybe that was important?

But that dark purple was there last night, both when Null killed the revenant and right before. Coming from Apex.

Did… did that make Apex a threat? Was something bad going to happen? He had said that he felt more aggressive than before, was that going to get out of hand?

…If it did, would Null be able to stop him?

The thought made him nauseous, so he rejected it outright. No. Apex was Apex. Lovable, goofy Apex. He was just going through tough times. This would all get better when they finally got to Warfang.

…Right?

He didn't ponder it any further. He didn't want to.

He didn't need to, either. Apex returned around that time, two turkeys hanging from his mouth. The birds were both missing their heads, sheared cleanly off. He set the turkeys down and sat, giving Null a wide grin. "Tada!"

"How'd you do this?" Null padded over, poking one of the headless stumps. "Too clean to be claws or teeth - unless you got a lot stronger lately and your claws are sharper than ever. But it looks like wind blades and you can't cast those without your wings."

"I learned a thing or two in the arena," Apex said proudly, "Like how to do wind blades with my tail, and better silence bubbles. You'd be surprised how often I used that one."

"Well, utter silence has its benefits in all sorts of situations, especially if you're quick enough to outmaneuver your foe. Plus, it creates a wall of completely still air, so you can also use it to-,"

"Deprive people of oxygen," Apex finished, to Null's surprise, "Yep, used that one in my first arena match. It was against Arachne, and, well, I remembered you saying something about bugs needing a lot of oxygen and she's a giant spider."

"...Huh. Well, good job. That was very clever." Null nodded. He had been about to say that the silence bubble could stop things like gas-based attacks, but he wasn't about to undermine Apex's achievements by telling him his guess was wrong. Besides, oxygen deprivation was probably more widely applicable.

"Anyways, dig in!" Apex didn't wait for Null, ripping apart his turkey with ravenous enthusiasm.

Null watched him for a moment. He was worried about Apex. Not what Apex would do - no. He wouldn't ever consider that. No. Never. But he was worried about how Apex was doing. That time in the arena had to have been traumatic, especially the part where his eyes had been melted by acid. Dropping from the sky, with torn wings and no guarantee of survival? That had to have been worse. There was no way Apex was unaffected, right? No way he could just brush it all off and act like nothing was wrong. That… that wasn't how it worked. Was it?

Apex paused partway through a mouthful and looked up at Null. He raised one eye ridge and swallowed. "Null? You going to eat?"

"Uh, yeah." Null blinked. "Just… thinking."

"What about?"

"Apex, are you okay?"

Apex didn't say anything for a short while, just looking at Null. After a bit, he spoke.

"I mean, I told you how I was feeling. Everything aches, although having a good run was nice and my legs aren't as sore. Wings hurt a bit, but not as bad as earlier. My other wings - ancestors, that's weird to say - are itchy, but no different from this morning." Apex stretched a bit. "Fine, I guess."

"No, I mean like.. Emotionally," Null said, "You've been through a lot. Do you… want to talk about it?"

"I told you all about what happened, didn't I?" Apex frowned.

"I mean, how you feel about it."

"It sucked, but it's over now." Apex shrugged."Why? It's not that big a deal."

"Apex your eyes were burned out, and you intentionally dropped from the sky with no way to catch yourself. Are you sure you're feeling okay?" Null pushed.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Like I said, it sucked but now it's over. I barely even remember the plummet, I was so out of it from the pain."

"That doesn't make it better," Null mumbled to himself with a sigh. "Alright. If you're sure. I'm just worried."

"Well, what about you? Are you feeling okay?" Apex seemed concerned now. "You said Krawl was about to gut you, wasn't that scary?"

"All I did was lie to a giant bug, Apex. Then I got knocked out. I wasn't scared for my life or even that worried because I had a magic bomb the whole time. The tidestrider was worse than Krawl, and the boread was worse than the tidestrider. Since we left home nothing has been worse for me than the goliath -," Null had to pause, his voice refusing to work for a moment before he continued. "Which is about the worst thing for me to think about right now. So my state of mind hasn't been changed by anything we encountered on this trip."

"Yeah but… are you okay about the goliath?"

"It was just an elemental."

"Okay, then are you okay about what it did?"

"...No."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Null let out a choked sob, wondering when he had begun crying. Apex moved over to put one of his splinted wings on Null's shoulders, pulling him into an embrace.

Ancestors only knew how long Null sat there, sobbing like a child. But when it passed, he could only say a few words. His voice was hoarse, his chest and throat hurt, and his eyes were dry.

"I miss her," Null whispered.

"I know. I do too," Apex replied softly.

"It's not fair."

"No it isn't."

"...I'm sorry. I just wanted to be sure you were okay and now…"

"It's okay. You can cry."

When Null finally dried his tears and took the time to eat something, he let out a heavy breath. An emotional breakdown was not what he'd had in the plans for today. Oddly enough, he felt a lot better afterwards, though.

"We need to keep going," Null said eventually. He felt drained, but it was better than carrying that pain in his chest, "We're so close now. Just a day or two traveling north and we'll be there."

"I'm ready to go whenever you are."

"Then let's go," Null stood, leaving the carcass of the turkey behind. They had a lot of walking ahead of them, but they were closer to Warfang than they had ever been before.

A/N:

Physical recovery's the easy part. The mind can take a lot longer to heal.

One of the reviews on the original ten chapters of this story said that they didn't want it to turn into a gay fic. Well, I'll put it out there that romance isn't the main focus of the story, but self-discovery and self-acceptance is. Both Null and Apex have their own problems, their own paths to self-acceptance. This is one step out of many.