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Chayanne had not moved in fifteen minutes.
“Chayanne, come on. The Valentine’s celebrations are starting,” Philza tried to get his son to move along. “Tubbo is just being a bit dramatic, he’ll respawn soon.”
Chayanne shook his head, only hugging Tubbo’s body tighter. Sunny sat quietly by his side, clutching her pa’s motionless hand between her own small ones. Their eyes were wet with tears they didn’t dare to let spill in front of the crow. Because what would he really say? That she was being dramatic too?
“Chayanne…”
The older dragon hybrid shook his head again, refusing.
“Tallulah’s probably woken up by now. We shouldn’t keep her waiting.”
Sunny felt her heart sting with something fierce. She placed down a sign, writing on it.
‘Tell him to come back then.’
They can see Philza read it out. And the frown that fell onto his expression.
“Look, I can’t- I don’t control Tubbo, he’s gonna have to come back on his own.”
Sunny wished she had the voice to scream. They knew their pa, and he would never choose to not come back to her if he could. If Tubbo could respawn, he already would have. He would have respawned and reassured her, and sure he might laugh and brush it off at first, but he would still tell them it was okay and hug her tight and-
Sunny sniffed, their anger finally causing the tears to spill over. Because why was it that whenever the other grown-ups were in danger, people cared? What was different about her pa?
They feel the slightest bit of relief when Chayanne gently lowered Tubbo’s body onto the prismarine floor and moved to hug her instead. Sunny hid herself in the older dragon hybrid’s arms. At least he was nice enough to comfort her. At least like this, they didn’t have to see Philza’s likely annoyance at how long they were taking to leave.
At least with her face buried against Chayanne’s soft shirt, Sunny didn’t have to look at her pa’s unseeing eyes staring at nothing, or feel the lack of a heartbeat on his wrist.
She could just fool herself into pretending that their pa was a mermaid too, just like their ma Lenay had been. Not really dead, just sleeping.
She willingly ignored how her tears felt warmer than her pa’s hand had been. It didn’t feel as easy to pretend when he wasn’t going along with it.