To Hell And Back For You {Final Chapter}

”I’m coming.”

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     Geno felt incredibly uncomfortable when he woke up. Not because he was laying in some sort of weird position or the temperature wasn’t right, but because he could sense that he was alone in the bed. Groggily, he rolled onto his back and put his arms out flat, and sure enough, there was nothing but a mattress beneath it.

      After a few moments of not wanting to, Geno opened his eyes sat up, looking at the window where he could see the sunlight shining in. Listening to the sounds of the birds chirping felt unusual now due to how he hadn’t experienced them in Acheron, but there was something else in Geno’s mind as he listened to their morning song. That he and Peasley were going to need to seriously talk, no matter how much they didn’t want to.

      Strangely enough, being in Acheron had ended up making it easier to not think about everything that had happened before, particularly the fight they’d had. They’d had bigger issues to worry about at the time, so everything else wasn’t a priority. But now they were home, and sweeping things under the rug wasn’t an option. Not that Geno would think to expect such a pleasantry anyway.

      After a few more moments, he stood up from the bed and took in the details of their shared room, which he hadn’t really gotten to look at the previous night due to how tired he’d been when they had arrived. It really was good to be home. With a sigh, Geno then opened the slightly ajar door and walked out into the hallway. He wasn’t sure if he was hyping himself up or what, but he wanted to feel prepared.

     Out in the living room, Peasley was sitting on the couch, silently staring down at his feet. It eerily reminded Geno of how he himself has been before he and Peasley had fought. However, he couldn’t back down now, so he walked over and sat beside Peasley on the couch.

     “Are you alright, Peasley?” Geno asked, gently placing his hand on his partner’s shoulder.

      Peasley turned to look at him, showing his tired eyes. “I’m alright for the most part,” he said, “I’m just…thinking about something.”

     Geno looked away uncomfortably. “If you need some time to yourself to think about it, I can-“

    “No!” Peasley suddenly snapped, though his tone sounded more fearful than anything, placing his hand on Geno’s, which was still on his shoulder, “Please, don’t go…I…”

     Geno watched Peasley’s face carefully to try to read him. He didn’t seem angry, but instead stressed. Something that he wasn’t quite sure how to put into words. “Are you sure you’re alright?” he asked cautiously.

     “I just…” Peasley sighed, “There’s something I want to…No…that I NEED to tell you. I just don’t know if I can rely on myself to have the strength to say it.”

    “Then only say what you can,” Geno said, trying to help.

      Peasley looked at him again. Geno wasn’t smiling due to feeling that it would be inappropriate to do so. But Peasley could feel the comfort and radiating from him as he squeezed his shoulder, and he couldn’t help but smile just a little bit before he turned his face back to the floor and take a deep breath to begin to say what he wanted to.

    “When I was 5 years old…My father abandoned my mother and I. I didn’t understand everything said given how I was so young, but I hearing them yell at each other and my mother was crying. Then when my father appeared with a packed bag…even at that age, I understood what that meant.

     I grabbed him…I cried…I begged him not to go…But he simply turned around and struck me. He called me a worthless child who would amount to nothing in life and said he regretted staying for me. That was the last thing I ever heard him say to me before he disappeared from my life forever.

      For a few years, I took his words to heart. I closed myself off and had no faith in myself, and my mother put in some much extra effort to show me love and care to try to help, though she feared I’d been damaged for good. But when I was 8 years old, I met Alfonse, and he helped me restore my confidence by acting like a brother to me. And that’s how I started becoming more outspoken and able to brush off things people said about me.

      But I’ve never forgotten that day. It’s always haunted me, and it’s always made be question myself on the inside. Because part of me fears that even with my efforts…I might not be able to be any better, no matter how I try.”

     Finally finished with his unbroken diatribe of words, Peasley picked his head up finally and looked at Geno once again. The look of silent horror visible on his face made Peasley’s eyes widen. His mouth was hanging open and his pupils seemed noticeably small as he processes everything he had been told.

     “I’m sorry…” Peasley said finally, “Was that too much?”

    “No, no. It’s not that,” Geno shook his head, snapping himself out of his frozen state, “It’s just…I don’t understand. How could a parent say such horrible things to their child? We Star Spirits don’t really understand how that works in the same way, but it’s believed that humans love their children. But what you just said…”

    “It’s not normal or ideal. And I can’t really say for certain what his reasoning was given that my younger self wasn’t listening for the pieces,” Peasley itted with a shrug, “But if I had to guess, it was because his love for us was never that strong in the first place. And he had just reached his eventual breaking point. It probably could’ve happened anytime, and it just happened to be then.”

     Geno was quiet for a moment, but he then leaned his head on Peasley’s shoulder and hugged him. “I’m so sorry…” he said sadly, “But I want you to know. You are a better man than him. Your efforts aren’t wasted.”

     Peasley sighed as he leaned his head on Geno’s in return. “I hate thinking about it, but it’s undeniable that it was part of the reason why I ended up where I am today…And those pieces of my life are things you deserve to know.”

     Geno picked his head up curiously. “What are you saying?” he asked, not wanting to jump to any sort of conclusion.

     “I’m saying…that you were right,” Peasley said as he positioned his body to better face Geno, “I’ve shut my past away for so long because I was ultimately afraid that it would effect what people thought of me. That scared me more than the memories themselves. But the more I built up a wall of fear of approaching it, the more I wanted to keep shutting it out, and deny that anything was ever wrong with me even in my everyday life. And that’s not fair to anyone. Not to my friends, or myself…or you.”

     Geno gripped Peasley’s hands in his own, looking a bit nervous. “Peasley…” he said uneasily, “Can you promise me that you saying this is actually coming from a place of being something you want for yourself?”

    “What do you mean?” Peasley asked.

     “Back when…we fought…” Geno said with a great amount of hesitation, “I was wrong to be so emotionally demanding of you. You said you weren’t ready yet I tried to push you rather that understand your feelings. I don’t want you to have only changed your mind just because of the adventure we just went through. I want to know that you truly feel that you’re ready to tell me these more sensitive things about yourself.”

     Peasley nodded gently. “I am ready. The adventure itself wasn’t the catalyst to me making this decision. It just gave me the time to consider everything as I re-evaluated what had happened before,” he explained.

      He squeezed Geno’s hands in his own sm smiled slightly, though Geno still didn’t look entirely sure. “And….You’re sure you’ll be okay with telling me about these things?” he asked, as though he was triple checking to make sure everything was absolutely clear.

     “I will be…But it’ll be slow,” Peasley itted with slightly slumped shoulders, “Some things are harder to talk about, so it’ll be a while before I can say everything.”

    “That’s fine,” Geno responded very quickly, “You can go at the pace that works best for you. I want to know you, but I don’t want to tear it out of you.”

     Peasley smiled as he nodded in response to his words, but he then frowned slightly again, his head turning away.

     “What’s wrong?” Geno asked, slightly alarmed.

     “Sorry,” Peasley said, biting his lip slightly, “I just…There’s one more thing.”

    “Is it about our fight? Because I never really did get to apologize for that,” Geno said anxiously.

     “No, it’s not that. I think we both know what we feel bad about and what we want to do to move past that. I’m thinking about something else,” Peasley explained. With that, Geno just stared at him quietly, waiting to hear what exactly was on his mind.

      Peasley was quiet for a moment, but his hand shakily picked itself up as he tucked a little bit of Geno’s hair behind his ear, staring at him as if he was trying to memorize his features before saying goodbye.

     “Peasley…?” Geno questioned nervously.

    “I…I’m sorry,” Peasley said, his voice cracking very uncharacteristically, “I just…This whole experience…It’s shown me how truly important you are to me, and how losing you so suddenly…It almost broke me.”

     Geno’s eyes widened slightly, both from hearing Peasley’s words and reading his face. “What happened?” he asked cautiously, feeling that whatever his guess of an explanation was wasn’t going to be the truth.

      Peasley hung his head before he gripped Geno’s hands tightly once again, and it was only when Geno squeezed back that he continued with his train of thought.

     “When you were taken away…I didn’t know what to do,” he said unsteadily, “I was in denial at first, and I spent hours in the woods looking for you. But when it sank in that you were really gone…I completely fell apart.”

    “Peasley…” Geno said, though he was unsure of what he could really say about things.

     “I was such a mess because I blamed myself for what happened. By the time your friends came to seek me out, I probably could’ve been mistaken for some kind of tramp. I was trying to avoid the possibility that you were lost because of me…” Peasley explained as he continued, “When they talked to me, I was rude and irritable towards them because I was trying to shut them out. But they snapped me out of it when they told me they knew where to find you, and I had hope again.”

     Peasley picked his head up, realizing he had been squeezing his eyes shut. He could see tears in Geno’s eyes that he was trying to blink back, but he was failing.

     “Geno, please don’t cry…” Peasley begged.

    “I can’t bear to think of you stuck in a state like that,” Geno said quietly, “To think of you slipping away…It probably all could’ve been prevented if I had just never left the house…”

    “No. You did the right thing back then. You were doing what you knew you needed to so you could ease your emotions and address things calmly after what happened,” Peasley said, shaking his head, “What ended up happening wasn’t something we could’ve predicted or expected. As Hippolytus told me…You can’t use the hindsight you have now to blame yourself for what happened then.”

     Geno tried his best to smile as he nodded in understanding, but his tears finally managed to escape him despite his efforts. “Hippolytus has his wisdom rune for a reason…” he said, as though he was just trying to say something, even if it wasn’t the most related, just to ignore his own tears.

      Peasley placed his hand on Geno’s cheek and wiped away his tears with his thumb, then he pulled him a little closer, pressing their foreheads together.

     “I’m so sorry, Peasley…” Geno said sadly, “I know that so much of what happened put me in extra danger…I know it must’ve hurt you when it was my choice to cause myself that pain…”

    “Don’t be too hard on yourself,” Peasley whispered calmly, “What you did saved all of us. We wouldn’t have made it home without your actions.”

    “I…I had to,” Geno said uneasily, “I can’t lose you…”

    “I can’t lose you either…” Peasley then pulled Geno ever so closer and kissed him tenderly, and both of them too time to relish in the fact that this was the first kiss that they’d shared since their terrifying adventure had ended, and they were both finally safe.

      When they separated, the two gently embraced, holding each other warmly. Where they had once felt fear and sadness, they now felt peace and happiness. Geno was shaking ever so slightly as he gripped Peasley tightly, and Peasley rubbed the back of his head to try to ease him.

     “I love you, Geno,” Peasley said finally, managing to peacefully smile.

     “I love you too, Peasley,” Geno responded, leaning into his embrace as much as he possibly could, which Peasley could accept.

      After that, there were no more words either of them could really say. Give what they had gone through, they were ready for a break from adventures. Peasley thought about how he would need to tell the story to Alfonse, along with starting to open himself up to Geno about more of his past.

      However, now wasn’t the time for grandiose stories or reminiscing. Now was the time for he and Geno to just be together for some quiet moments to try and make up for some of the time they had lost. To how their lives had the strength of an eternal fire, more powerful than any Hell could create.

The End

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AUTHOR’S NOTES: Whew…It’s finally over. I’ve finally gotten this whole thing posted. I really hope you guys enjoyed this, and I hope it’ll tide you guys over for a while because I genuinely don’t know when will be the next time I post here. Things have changed for me, and though I still love the Mario franchise, my creative attention has shifted over the course of the past year or so.

That said, I’ll still be chatting and moderating on the relative regular, so even though I won’t be posting as constantly, I’ll still be around. Ya’ll haven’t seen the last of me!

Huge thanks to my good friend, 0DD for helping me with a special cover image for this final chapter. It’s always fun to shake it up for the conclusion, and I always appreciate my buddies. Go check them out if you somehow haven’t already.

Well, that’s all for right now. I hope you guys enjoyed this wrap up and the story in general. Have a good day and I’ll see you all next time. :hibiscus: :gem: :hibiscus: