Yes, it is cheesy, dear viewers, and it is a bit of an unexpected tangent from what I had planned. You can leave. I'm not keeping you here. If you're staying with me, tell me - in reviews!
Aloja didn't know how long he'd been laying in the forest. He must've fallen asleep, as he found himself waking you, stiff from the uncomfortable ground. His eyes were dried out from crying, and still sleepy as well.
He briefly wondered if Alek had been searching for him, but then threw that thought away. Of course not. Alek hated him now. He'd ruined their friendship, and now Alek probably didn't want anything to do with Aloja.
The Illustrator didn't sense anything, meaning Alek wasn't within range. Unsure of what to do without his Writer by his side, Aloja slumped next to a tree. He didn't know where he was, and without his Writer, he was in the dark of whether any of his actions would have consequences. Not only was Aloja not a Writer, but he also wasn't an Oracle, and he'd never felt so clueless as to where to go or what to do.
He was just a Summoner, someone who the Thirteenth Oracle never would've saw if it wasn't for his friend and fellow Thirteenth Oracle, Fang. Why she took notice in him, he couldn't be sure. He'd never had the courage to ask. But after that, she would always bring Aloja along when they had free time, allowing Aloja to get to know Alek.
Aloja was astonished when he learned he was an Illustrator alone, but when he became Alek's Illustrator, he exploded with joy. Unlike Writers, Illustrators aren't born knowing their abilities and raised knowing what they can do. Sometimes they find their ability by chance, drawing something and having it come to life spontaneously, but other times, they have to wait until they reach maturity before they are brought in by the organization.
Aloja got to live his life with Alek and Fang, knowing they were both Oracles and future creators, but not knowing he'd be one too. He was so happy to know that he wouldn't be separated from his friends, and happy to know that his friends had planned to stay his friends even if they moved on without him. At the time, his life couldn't have gotten better.
Now, it couldn't possibly get worse.
"Aloja?"
The blonde jumped back at Alek's voice, seeing him standing right in front of him. When had he gotten there? How? He was sure Alek hadn't been following him. But Aloja reminded himself that Alek was a Writer. He could've made it so that Aloja had run in a circle coming right back to Alek in his desperate flight. The fact that he was in a forest would've made that easy enough, but Aloja hadn't even been paying attention to where he was going. Alek would've easily made him run in circles with barely a second thought.
"Go away," Aloja demanded weakly, sniffling and wiping his eyes. He stood and turned, trying to hurry off again.
"Hey, wait." Alek grabbed his wrist and held him back. "What's wrong? Do you think I'm mad or something?"
Aloja froze.
"You mean…you're not?"
"Why would I be? Look, this has to just be a misunderstanding."
Alek put both his hands around the hand he'd grabbed.
"Come on. I promise, I'm not angry, Aloja."
"But, Alek…"
He moved in front of Aloja, gripping his wrist with one hand and putting his other on Aloja's cheek, cupping his face gently.
"Please believe me, Aloja."
Aloja stared at Alek's face in disbelief. This couldn't be real. He was just imagining this. He was really passed out on the forest floor and dreaming. Or maybe his pen made this for him when he wished things were just okay. It was said that things like that could happen sometimes, Illustrators controlling their pens without meaning to and making something happen without even realizing it. Either way, this couldn't be Alek.
"No…no, I…"
He backed away, but Alek's grip on his wrist tightened.
"Aloja-"
"Aloja!"
Aloja jumped, looking behind him to see…Alek? Aloja looked between the boy running up to him and the one gripping his wrist, panicking. The former wasn't an illusion, as the latter was looking at him too. Aloja knew it was too good to be true. This wasn't Alek, it couldn't be.
He pulled his hand, but Alek had a serious grip, and sadly he had Aloja's left wrist in his grasp, his drawing hand. He was working on being ambidextrous - as they recommended that for both Illustrators and Writers back at the academy, but even with his Illustrator powers, he still sucked at drawing with his right hand. He fumbled for his pen, but it was in his bag at his left hip, which was hard to reach when his left hand was restrained.
"Get your hands off him!" Real Alek shouted as he sprinted up. Alek didn't have any weapons on him, as he relied on Aloja to summon anything they needed, so he couldn't exactly shoot his double, and he didn't have anything to throw either. How had he never realized how much he relied on Aloja?
Fake Alek pulled Aloja's wrist and they began running. Aloja stumbled to stay on his feet, knowing that even if he didn't run with his captor, he was still plenty strong enough just to flat out drag him. He only prayed Alek was as fast as his double, but considering that Alek had already been running while Fake Alek had just begun to run, therefore having more stamina, Real Alek's chances were already lowered.
"Aloja!"
"Who are you?" Aloja asked as they ran.
He didn't get an answer, only a smirk. The Fake Alek was barely breaking a sweat while running, and despite Alek's efforts to make himself faster or give himself more stamina, something was wrong. He couldn't do anything, and he might as well have spat in the wind for the good his efforts did. He had never felt so helpless, even when it came to losing Fang. Now, he was gonna loose another friend, but this time, who knew what was in store for him? Worst of all, he could prevent this from happening, he could do something. There was nothing to be done about Fang, but when he was actually capable of changing things yet couldn't, that's what it really meant to feel helpless.
Aloja was worried now why Alek hadn't caught up. Unless this Fake Alek was also a Writer, Alek should've been able to easily do something to save him. Maybe Alek was angry at him. Maybe he didn't want to save Aloja, not that much. Aloja lost his energy at the thought. It didn't seem likely, Alek wasn't like that. Yet still, the thought wouldn't leave Aloja's head. He scolded himself for caring so much about Alek, but his stupid heart once again went against his rational head.
Aloja and his kidnapper reached a cliff. There were posts that suggested a bridge once existed, but it seemed to have collapsed, as there was no longer a way across. It was a pretty long fall, and Aloja definitely didn't want to make that jump and just hope water below would catch him, and the other side was much too far away to just leap across in one bound.
"You, Illustrator," Fake Alek said harshly. "Where is the pendant?"
"The wha-?"
"The gem containing one of your kind! Where is it?"
"It's gone! We found a book to release the person inside!"
Fake Alek cursed under his breath.
"Rumpelstiltskin and the Evil Queen, huh? Fine, then I'll just need to capture another one."
"Aloja!" Real Alek called, causing the Fake Alek to smirk.
"And it seems I'll have another chance to capture a Writer along with you. No neko to save you this time, boys."
He released Aloja's hand to reach into his own bag, and Aloja took the chance to shove Fake Alek away and run towards the voice of the real one. Aloja sprinted as fast as he could into the forest once more, knowing that the Fake Alek wouldn't let him get away easily.
Aloja grabbed his pen from his bag and then began drawing an ink cloud, releasing all the ink he could and shrouding the entire forest within a thirty-foot radius. He could sense his way through the ink easily, and found Real Alek stumbling forward, running into a tree. Under normal circumstances, Aloja would've laughed at him for it (and documented his embarrassed face in his notebook because it was adorable), but right now he sprinted towards Alek as fast as he could.
"Alek!"
"Aloja?"
Alek was basically blinded and couldn't see anything but blackness, so hearing Aloja's voice made his heart jump for joy. He didn't sound like he was in danger, and Alek knew that the ink cloud had to have been his partner's.
When he felt Aloja's body tackle him in a hug, he had never been so happy to have Aloja with him. Alek gripped his friend tightly, wanting to apologize a million times for anything he'd done to make Aloja run away in the first place, and for not being able to reach him when the Fake Alek had taken him.
"Aloja, I-"
"Come on, we need to hurry!" Aloja interrupted, releasing Alek from his hug (making Alek feel cold without his warmth) and grabbing his wrist to drag him off.
"Whoa, wait! Who is that guy?! What does he want?!"
"Us! He's the one that captured Sai in that charm!"
"What?! That explains why I wasn't able to catch you. He has a resistance to our abilities."
"And that means-!"
Before Aloja could say it, the ink cloud began to shift, sucked back in the direction that he'd come from as though a vacuum was sucking it all up. When the edge of the ink cloud passed the two boys, Aloja was dragged along with it, as though the ink cloud was gripping him.
Aloja and Alek each gripped each other's hands tightly by instinct, Alek fumbling to get a grip on the nearest tree trunk. When the rest of the ink cloud was sucked away minus the bit holding onto Aloja, it was revealed that Fake Alek was holding up a charm similar to the one that Sai had been in. The only difference was the gem itself was clear as diamond instead of navy blue.
The charm in Fake Alek's hand seemed to be sucking both of them in, and since it had gotten a lock on Aloja's ink cloud, it consequently had a lock on Aloja as well. Yet that also meant that it still didn't have a lock on Alek, and he could still escape.
"Alek, let go!" Aloja ordered.
"What?! No! Don't you dare say something like that! We're both gonna make it out of this!"
"You need to get to Fang and release Sai, and you can't let this guy get both of us! Whoever he is, if he gets ahold of a Writer and an Illustrator's power, none of us will be able to stop him!"
Alek had never felt so helpless in his life. Losing Fang to someone else seemed trivial compared to the pain in his chest at the thought that he'd have to let Aloja get taken by that bastard.
"I'm sorry…"
"It's okay. I know you'll rescue me."
But that wasn't what he meant, not entirely. He was sorry that he never noticed how Aloja felt, and how he'd never gotten to talk to Aloja about it since all this crap happened afterwards. Aloja had to have felt crushed inside, watching the person he liked going after someone else, ignorant of how you felt. Alek would know. But he also knew how stupid he himself had acted in his jealousy of Sai and his anger at his life. Every time he got angry at Sai or Fang, or both of them, he had reminded Aloja of how Alek would never see him like that. Now that Alek knew, he wanted to apologize a million times. He wanted to make up for it, he didn't want to let Aloja go, especially not now.
He tightened his grip on Aloja's hand in anger, but his grip on the tree wasn't indefinite. He felt his hand slipping from his sweat and the strong force tugging at his Illustrator, and he knew that he either had to let Aloja go or risk that wizard have the power of two Illustrators (because Sai's pendant was still in Alek's bag) and a Writer. Despite knowing that, he still didn't want to let go.
"Alek, please," Aloja begged. He didn't want Alek to get taken down with him, and if he knew his friend, no matter how much he now hated Aloja, he'd still stop at nothing to save him. If he was willing to save Sai before - even if he said it was just to get Fang to come back - despite everything, he was still a good person, and he wouldn't just leave someone behind.
Not to mention that this wizard dude wouldn't use Aloja's power for good, if first impressions were anything to go by. The power of an Illustrator was dangerous, especially without a Writer there to keep it in check, and Alek and Fang together would be able to convince the board to allow them to take action and stop this guy. But that meant Alek had to get away from this encounter.
So, using all the strength he had, he grabbed Alek's forearm and then pulled himself up to Alek's torso. He got a grip on the dark-haired boy's shoulders, finally prompting him to release Aloja's hand in favor of getting a better grip on his waist instead. But Alek's hand was losing his grip on the tree. They had seconds left.
"I'm sorry," He said.
"Don't you dare apologize!" Alek snapped. Aloja ignored his friend, continuing.
"You need to run. Once this guy traps me, you'll have a few moments at best to escape."
"Shut up, Aloja! I'm not letting him take you!"
"I'll do my best to guide you from within the pendant. Can't be much harder than summoning, can it?"
Aloja held on with one arm and dug through his bag, finding what he needed and preparing himself.
"Aloja, stop saying that! Come on, we can both make it-"
"The guy's gem has a lock on me, there's no way for me to escape it now. That guy can just walk right up to me and absorb my power manually, even if we did hold on."
Alek's grip tightened around Aloja's waist.
"I'm not…I can't just…I'm sorry."
Knowing what he needed to do, Aloja leaned in and captured his Writer's lips with his own. Alek stiffened for a moment in surprise, but then Alek's grip relaxed slightly as he melted into it. Just what Aloja needed.
He shoved his friend away, causing him to loose his grip because he was unprepared. Alek scrambled to grab any part of Aloja he could, but with only one hand and less than a millisecond to react, all he got was a slight brush of his fingers against his Illustrator's arm before he was out of reach in an instant.
"Aloja!"
All at once, there was a bright flash of light, the winds that had been drawing the two in stopped, and then a book smacked into Alek's head. When Alek gathered his bearings again, he saw that the book was Aloja's notepad.
Suddenly, it dawned on him that he'd lost his friend. He was in the pendant now. Alek had failed in protecting him. Alek had failed to protect not only his friend, but one of his people, his family, (and his maybe-boyfriend, but this was no time to be thinking about that).
To an Oracle, not being able to protect your people might as well have been a crime worthy of death. Though that's not how things worked, and the people would never judge him that way, that's how it felt to an Oracle.
Now, Alek had lost one of the most important people in his life, and he had only just realized how important he really was a moment too late.
Gripping his Illustrator's notebook, he sprinted away with all his anger behind him. He needed to get Aloja back, he needed to apologize for being so stupid. He still felt Aloja's arm slipping out of his grasp, he still felt the kiss he used to get Alek to let his guard down.
You never realize how much you need something until it's gone, and right now, Alek needed to have his partner by his side again more than ever before.
Alek sprinted through the forest, not knowing or caring if anything was following him. He didn't feel the cuts of branches that scraped him as he ran past; he didn't feel the pain of whenever he tripped over a tree root and practically broke his foot each time since he was running so fast; he didn't feel when the ground trembled at something large running after him.
When said something inevitably caught up, he felt a large amount of energy leaving him as a barrier went up to protect him subconsciously. He barely felt it. He just kept running, feeling the burning pain surge through him as his body screamed for him to stop and rest. He told it to shut the fuck up as he ran faster.
And he didn't try to stop the stream of tears and sobs that escaped him as he rushed back to the town.
Told you it was cheesy, but it was also sweet too. If Once Upon a Time can get away with all their drama, this can't be that far out of the ballpark, right?
Reeevieeew!