Sorry for this, I know I asked in advance but like—here goes nothing. Anyway, below is an old angst one shot I made back in 2022 based around this. Thank you Auri for this post, and thank you for like essentially sending me to my grave all those years ago with your posts about these two. If there are grammar errors, I'm truly sorry.
Evil Xisuma is quiet—in fact, exceptionally too quiet and Worm Man almost wonders if they didn’t hear him speak.
“Please don’t,” he reiterates, squeezing their hand to wordlessly remind Evil X he wasn’t going anywhere.
Evil X was angry, silently fuming in anguish. He had every right to be after everything; for only being told what happened over the course of a season just now, for being exiled somewhere he’d rather not mention, and for his absence being replaced with a terrifying, crude farce of their image. At first, in hindsight, Worm Man could tell something was wrong amidst the previous season. It wasn’t hard to miss. He knew Evil Xisuma well enough that even the slightest hand movement or manner of speaking felt foreign and shady from the lookalike, almost identical and yet, distorted and terribly wrong. Even though they had the same voice, same red armor, same ache for evil—they were, most definitely, not the same. It was like, Worm Man acknowledges once again, his friend was possessed or worst of all, being used again by something far more sinister. Although, thankfully, that was not the case.
However, Worm Man knew anger—whatever current emotion Evil X was currently feeling wasn’t going to help his friend or lessen the pain, if anything it would make matters worse. And Worm Man didn’t want that. He wanted Evil Xisuma to be safe—alive rather then gone forever again, unable to help the one person he cared for most. And if that meant he had to stop them, then he would do so.
The hand he’s griping doesn’t move but a voice, coolly and somehow, not teeming with angry despite every action and shift in demeanor from earlier saying so, orders lowly.
Worm Man shakes his head.
Even though Evil Xisuma isn’t facing him, they repeat louder, trying to pull their hand away. “Let. Go.”
He pulls again, this time harder.
“I said let go of me,” Evil Xisuma shouts.
In an instant between shoving hands and shaking, Worm Man grabs them and throws his arms around Evil Xisuma’s body in a tight gripe—hugging them close—before quickly feeling the other thrash against him, but, chooses to ignore it. Worm Man shuts his eyes, silently hoping and praying Evil X will eventually just tire himself out or maybe, hopefully, be less angry and not do something rash right now.
“What the—Augh! Let go off me already,” hisses Evil X, nearly breaking free.
“No, Evil X, you’ll be—I can’t!”
Evil Xisuma stops. Finally stops his squirming and thrashing and Worm Man almost thinks its over but when violet eyes peek open, he doesn’t back off—not yet, at least.
Evil X is looking at him in a expression he can’t quite read and it hurts—it hurts looking at him like this but he ignores it because Evil Xisuma is actually looking at him, a sign that they are listening to him again despite the outrage.
Worm Man eases his gripe a little and somehow, thankfully, his friend doesn’t fight back or jerk away.
“I know you’re upset,” he begins to say. “But please please don’t do what I think you’re gonna do! If you go out there…if he—I don’t know what I’d do with myself…”
Evil Xisuma is quiet again. Worm Man assumes they’re letting the words sink in similar to earlier so he, begrudgingly, waits patiently for a reaction.
He sighs, heavy and yet, weak.
Worm Man tries to not let his emotions show but he’s pretty sure he’s already has tears in his eyes. And he can feel Evil Xisuma lean against him, not pushing away, and wraps his arms around him, wordlessly reassuring him.
Worm Man still doesn’t believe it so he mutters, “promise me you won’t.”
He lets out a sigh of relief at the other’s quick response but before Worm Man can do anything else, Evil Xisuma continues. “Besides… I’m clearly not the real Evil X,” he states bitterly like it’s the honest truth.
He doesn’t like the sound of that. He doesn’t blame Evil Xisuma for thinking that way but he doesn’t think Evil Xisuma should be hard on himself either, he’s here and he’s with him—that’s all that matters.
“But you are,” he stammers, “didn’t you hear what I said earlier.”
Evil Xisuma doesn’t reply.
Instead, he buries his head deep into Worm Man’s hoodie, shaking as he gripes the back of his pink hoodie tightly. Worm Man is pretty sure there are tear stains on his hoodie but he doesn’t care. Because soon the shaking gets worse.
“He didn’t know,” he reiterates.
“I know,” Worm Man says again.
This isn’t what Worm Man wanted to happen when he told Evil Xisuma about the previous season with the hermits. He thought the whole thing was, honestly, really silly in hindsight like—like a horrible train-wreck you couldn’t help but laugh at—oh, but that sounded really morbid actually…but it was, wasn’t it? It was anything but pleasant. But if only he knew how Evil Xisuma truly felt back then, then perhaps, maybe, he wouldn’t have said anything, just kept quiet or better yet, change the topic to something funny Zedaph did recently like… his achievement thing! Yeah, that! Evil Xisuma would find that funny, right? Everyone said Zedaph was funny. But then, Worm Man remembers the look on Evil Xisuma’s face as Worm Man started to ramble on and on and on about the previous season—about the Evil Empire and the moon, he then thinks, he really messed up.
“I’m sorry,” Worm Man apologizes after a while.
A hand griping his hoodie twists roughly at the words. “What’re you apologizing for—it’s not your fault…”
“No,” Evil Xisuma lifts his head back, shaking it and says, “no sad hero talk.”
Worm Man snorts, “then no sad villain talk.”
“…I’m still sorry though,” he reiterates while brushing his hand through white hair. “And I meant what I said earlier, really.”
Evil Xisuma hums, resting the side of his head on Worm Man’s shoulder.
It’s silent for a moment before Worm Man speaks again. “Are you…,” he pauses his movement briefly, a little worried. “…Okay?”
It was obvious they weren’t but he wanted to ask anyway.
Evil Xisuma hums questioningly as he shifts his head more before he lets out a sigh, one that isn’t as heavy or mildly concerning as before. “…No but I’m better than if I was out,” he replies coolly, “I—”
He sighs again, letting the words fall on his lips. “Thank you,” Evil Xisuma mutters, pushing their head back down, obscuring their face.