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i-use-to-have-a-life · 1 day ago

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Part One.

Lukey wakes up the morning after the creation of the Skulk Catalyst with a headache building between his eyes and an uncomfortable itching in his throat, and he just knows that it’s going to be one of those days.

The day after a respawn sucks, especially after a respawn as violent as his was; the Warden’s screech was strong enough to blow his eyeballs right out of his head, according to Aimsey, and that’s crazy, right? And the Skulk was cold and wet and disgustingly squishy, and, like, uuuuugh!!

“Uuuuugh,” Lukey groans, sitting up in his chair and tiredly swatting a sticky note off of his cheek.

He’d fallen asleep at his desk again, passing right the fuck out as soon as his body had caught up with his brain’s exhaustion. He vaguely remembers his head hitting his desk, and…

Lukey’s face scrunches as he yawns, a frown pulling at the corners of his mouth as he tries to remember what else happened. Because he knows that he’s a light sleeper, and he knows that he hasn’t actually gotten a real night’s sleep since Pangi’s corruption started getting worse, and he knows that something else happened before he crashed. Something…

Oh, whatever. He’ll figure it out eventually, he always does.

Kicking his chair back from his desk, Lukey stretches his arms above his head and winces at the angry pops his spine gives in response.

He glances at his desk, sees his notes on the Skulk scattered across it, wrinkles his nose at the wet spot on one of the papers where his face just was.

There’s noise from outside of his office: Pangi talking to himself from down the hall, indiscernible; and the clanking of his boots as he stomps his way through the Lab like he owns the place.

As if. He talks big game, but he still gets lost trying to find the storage room after weeks of…

…

There’s noise from inside of the office, too: the pounding in Lukey’s skull, and the fire crackling behind him.

Lukey idly watches as Pangi walks past the office and into the storage room.

“Pangi!” he lazily calls, raising a hand in a half-hearted wave.

But Pangi doesn’t respond, disappearing behind the wall to the left like an asshole.

Lukey cups a hand around his mouth and yells, “Okay, fine! Good morning to you, too!”

Rolling his eyes, he stands from his chair and stretches some more- arms above his head, back arching as he yawns. The sleeves of his lab coat ride down his arms slightly, catching on his hoodie’s sleeves just above the elbow.

There’s still Skulk on his coat from the Ancient City, eugh. Worse, he’s still got some of his own blood from his death on his hoodie, and that’ll be even harder to wash out. (For how resilient the Skulk is, it’s surprisingly vulnerable to soap and water.)

Objectives for today, Lukey thinks. One, laundry. Two, clean out the water tank’s filter. Three-

Pangi strolls his way out of the storage room with an end crystal in his hand, and any and all scheduling goes out the window, because, hello?

Lukey trips over his own chair’s leg as he hurries out of his office and down the hallway after him.

“Pangi!” he shouts. “Hello, good morning!”

As soon as he opens his mouth, the end crystal is gone and replaced with a gapple.

Pangi spins around, a tense smile appearing on his face as Lukey skids to a stop in front of him.

Lukey’s hands slide into his coat’s pockets, body purposefully relaxed.

“You didn’t answer me earlier,” he pouts, definitely cool and suave and intimidating and demanding and-

“I didn’t hear you.” Pangi shrugs. “My bad.”

His eyes are hidden behind his sunglasses, but, for whatever reason, Lukey feels like Pangi is trying to make eye contact with him.

Okay, well, two can play at that game!

He straightens up and sticks his chin out slightly, and he’s only a little bit shorter than Pangi is, thanks. Only a centimeter at most.

“What, did the Corruption take your hearing, now, too?” Lukey jokes.

“Mm, no, don’t think so,” Pangi replies.

He turns on his heel and continues down the hall, not bothering to wait for Lukey to follow.

Well, fuck him.

Lukey follows; one of his steps equals half of Pangi’s, but not from the height difference. He just walks faster, that’s all, and that’s how he manages to catch up and walk by Pangi’s side before too long.

They’re going towards the tank room, Lukey notices.

“Soooo,” he says, “how are you?”

“I’m doing pretty alright, I can’t lie,” Pangi answers. “How about you?”

His lips twitch like he’s trying not to laugh as he asks this, which is just rude, honestly.

Lukey tries to smile through his pain. “Oh, not too bad. Just a bit of a headache, that’s all. ‘S probably from what happened yesterday.”

“Oh!” Pangi remarks, the complete opposite of nonchalant.

If Lukey didn’t know any better, he’d wager that Pangi actually looks excited at the prospect of a Bad Lukey Day. But, well, his Pangi wouldn’t be excited. This Pangi, though? Just a tad bit ruder. Would probably be happy if Lukey took a sick day just to get out of more experimentation with the Skulk.

(Not that Lukey blames him, mind. The Skulk is a fascinating organism, but it absolutely just reeks when exposed to light, and its texture? Ew.)

They enter the tank room, and Pangi beelines to the secret passage behind the trapdoors.

As he crouches, he almost seems to look Lukey over, staring in that way of his that makes Lukey feel like an ant about to get stepped on. The crystals running down the side of his face glimmer in the room’s artificial lighting, and, for just a second, they even look edible like rock candy.

Lukey briefly imagines sinking his teeth into Pangi’s cheek.

And then he shakes his head, and then he puts a hand to the side of his head and winces as the room spins around him. He staggers to the side, narrowly catching himself on a wall.

“Dude, are you drunk?” Pangi laughs. He’s smiling genuinely now, sharp teeth glinting.

Lukey glares at him, affronted. “No. Excuse me? I literally just said that I have a headache.”

Pangi’s head cocks to the side slightly, grin sharpening. “Must be one hell of a headache.”

“I’ll take a potion in a bit.”

Pangi shrugs and dives through the passageway.

Lukey, not one to be left behind, follows in suit.

“What’s the plan?” he asks, following Pangi down the stairs, one hand trailing along the wall for support.

“Oh, you’ll see,” is Pangi’s enigmatic response.

Lukey raises an eyebrow, and then he raises the other as Pangi breaks the wool wall down and pulls his end crystal back out.

“Please tell me that you aren’t about to do something stupid,” he tells Pangi.

Mentally, he wonders if he should message Aimsey asking for backup.

…But, really, what could they do against a Lifestealer on a mission?

Pangi enters the filtration room and immediately goes to stand in front of the Corruption’s container.

Lukey cautiously comes to stand behind him, back against the wall and arms crossed.

Pangi just… looks at the Corruption. His free hand comes up to press against the glass, the other hand holding the end crystal close to his chest right above his heart.

Lukey watches him.

The Corruption glows, it’s always done that. Its crystalline veins pulse with light in a rhythm approximating a heartbeat, one that Lukey suspects matches Pangi and Pili’s.

The Skulk, however, roars hungrily, angrily. Its tendrils whap against the inside of its container just begging to be let out, but, like, no? Lukey needs to get his Skulk supply from somewhere.

An itch goes down Lukey’s throat; he grimaces and coughs into his elbow, his brain rattling around inside of his skull from the force of it. Owwwwww…

“You good there, Lukey?” Pangi asks.

Lukey waves him off. “I’m fine. I’m just…”

He trails off into another cough. This one is wet, and a glob of mucus lands on his coat’s sleeve. (Ew.) In the light of the Corruption’s glow, it almost appears to be purple- a light, almost clear violet color. But that’s crazy, right?

…It’s crazy.

His eyes follow Pangi as he walks around the Corruption’s container, staring at it with the kind of focus that only this new corrupted Pangi could ever have. (The regular Pangi knows how to lock in, of course, but he doesn’t go quiet like this one does.)

“How are you feeling?” Lukey asks him.

“I… could be better, I can’t lie,” Pangi admits.

He looks up from the Corruption. Bathed in its glow, his already-pale skin looks as grey as a corpse’s.

Pangi’s hair is a natural brown color, as far as Lukey knows. He usually dyes it orange once every few weeks with some fancy natural dye shit that doesn’t damage his hair, but his roots were coming back in by the time Lukey put him in the tank for the first time. Now, though, his roots are a pure, dark purple that contrasts heavily with the rest of his still-orange hair.

His cheeks are sunken in slightly, and his lips are chapped.

(Lukey, of course, has been taking notes on Pangi’s lips for perfectly normal reasons.)

Lukey frowns. “What’s wrong? Is it…?”

He stops the question before he finishes it, already knowing the answer. Because, really, what else could it be?

Pangi halfway nods, head hanging slightly as he answers, “The Corruption? Yeah. It…”

He sighs, “Lukey, you can’t tell anyone else what I’m about to tell you, okay?”

“Of course,” Lukey promises.

“Not even Aimsey.”

“…If that’s what you wish.”

Pangi nods again, fully this time. “Good, because this is…”

And he sighs again, looks back at the Corruption. “Yesterday, you died.”

“Wow, thanks for the reminder.”

“Dude, shut up, let me talk.”

Lukey mimes zipping his mouth shut.

Pangi catches his actions in his reflection in the container’s glass and smiles something that almost looks fond.

“Anyway,” he continues, “that sucked. But the Corruption was almost, like, happy about it?”

And there’s the confirmation that the Corruption can communicate with its hosts, finally, Lukey has been looking forward to hearing that. (Sarcasm, of course, because: AAAAAAGGHH!!)

“But you’re still… well, I’d like for you to be my friend,” Pangi says. “You’re pretty cool when you aren’t trying to show off.”

(Lukey’s heart skips a happy beat. Aww! Yes!!)

“But the Corruption has kind of been trying to get me to kill you for the past, like, week?” Pangi finishes, ending with an awkward sort of ‘Surprise!’ smile that’s much more charming than it really should be.

…Lukey’s head hurts.

He closes his eyes and raises his hands to massage at his temples.

“Well,” he stiltedly says, “that’s comforting to hear.”

Pangi’s armored footsteps are hesitant as he approaches.

“But I’ve taken care of that,” he explains, voice slow.

Lukey’s hands pause. A bad idea forms in the back of his mind, and he tries to forget about it as quickly as he came up with it.

His eyes crack open, and he shoots Pangi a stern look.

“What do you mean?” he asks. “When you say you’ve ‘taken care of’ it?”

Pangi, at least, has the decency to look sheepish as he answers, “Uhh, well… I was going through my enderchest, and I found some… vials?”

The end crystal still in his hand glows, and then it dims. Glows, and dims. Glows, and dims, right on the same beats as the Corruption’s veins.

…And, upon brief inspection, along the same beats as Lukey’s heart.

(Mental note: investigate the End for signs of Corruption. Bring Aimsey, they’ve actually been there before.)

“Pangi,” Lukey desperately says, hands falling to his sides in shock.

He doesn’t say anything past that, the words just don’t come out. He wants to ask why, what, when, how, but all he can manage is a croak as his tortured throat gives out on him.

He takes a step closer.

Pangi does as well, end crystal disappearing into his inventory as he raises his hands to grab onto Lukey’s shoulders.

Lukey does the same, fingers digging into the meat of Pangi’s upper arms like a lifeline.

“Please tell me you didn’t do what I think you did,” he begs.

Pangi gives Lukey’s shoulders what Lukey would normally call a comforting squeeze. But now? It’s just too much.

“Hey, but it’s fine, right?” Pangi cheerfully says. “With you Corrupted, I don’t have to worry about having to try and kill you anymore!”

Lukey groans, “You wouldn’t have actually done it!”

His forehead tips forward until it’s resting on Pangi’s chest. His eyes slip shut, and, unfortunately, he’s gay and easily comforted by strong muscular men giving him a hug.

And he hates hugs.

But he accepts the one Pangi gives him; it’s easy enough to pretend that it’s his Pangi trying to comfort him and not a stranger wearing his best friend’s body like a fursuit.

“If I lose my memories again,” he lowly threatens, “I am going to fucking kill you.”

“Aww,” Pangi coos. “I’d like to see you try!”

He laughs, and Lukey swears he can hear someone laughing alongside him: one thousand voices, including his own.

(Memory loss again… ugh, at least he has a way back to the Null to get them back, now.)

(But, really, again? It’s just getting redundant at this point…)

Or: the corrupted!pangkey au

AN: Hi I’ll put this on ao3 soon! Let me know what you think and if you want more!! Tags, asks, anything!! I won’t know to do more if you don’t tell me!!

#more pls #i love corrupted!pangkey

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