#and gortash seeing all of the ways he has changed them persisting despite the amnesia

[overcrowded-camp]

well here’s the thing. durge arrives at gortash’s coronation and they know they should bring their companions with them because, well, he’s one of the guys controlling the nether brain, and all of this is a big deal and very confusing. but this coronation feels private. it feels like something they don’t want to share. it feels like something they can’t name (or won’t admit to themselves).

so they leave their companions outside. “i’ll be back in five minutes, if you hear fighting come running” type deal. great. they go into the coronation.

on the other side of the room, at the end of this red and gold aisle, is this man. he’s scruffy and well dressed and unmistakably enver gortash. then he notices them and he smiles. and suddenly all of these emotions come flooding back. fondness, and familiarity, and a terrifying swell of affection and rightness. like the feeling they get coming back to camp after a hard day, but so much more.

the room gets quiet. people are staring. durge walks down the aisle to enver gortash (and they can’t shake the feeling that this, more than the atrocities they’ve committed and their determination to be good despite it all, is their greatest sin yet).

he tells them about their plan. about how clever they were. about how terrible orin has been, and what the consequences will be if they can’t get the brain back under control. and he doesn’t say it out loud—won’t in front of so many others, or simply cannot bring himself to—but they can read him like no one else they’ve ever met, and it is clear in his voice and in every line on his face and each gesture of his hands that he has missed them.

but they’re back now. no more tolerating orin. no more revisions to plans made for two. no more lonely late nights. the two of them will unseat their gods and rule the world. together.