Denial is a River in Egypt | A Floyd Leech angst one-shot
𓇼 ⋆.˚ 𓆉 𓆝 𓆡⋆.˚ 𓇼
Floyd Leech vehemently denies Azul could’ve killed him, and ends up having a panic/ptsd attack when he and Riddle have a confrontation.
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I hope everyone likes it! This was actually my first ever one-shot that I wrote, and my writing style’s changed a bit since then, but I think it’s worthy of being posted on Tumblr lol.
-Cara | (Shim/shim/shams/shims/shimself) | Host/Creativity Holder
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Og ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/77395401
Heartbreak could never affect him the same way it did others. For never could he feel the great pain of loss, nor the grief that comes with the experience a living being gains throughout his lifetime.
So when Floyd heard Shrimpy yapping to their little trio of fish (plus Sealie) about the potential of death and severe injury during Azul’s Overblot the following day, he didn’t know how to feel. Sure Azul was a little…cray-cray during his little tantrum, but he didn’t have the capacity to do any of that for real. He couldn’t. Floyd doubted his little cephalopod heart could take doing something so extreme.
Even if…okay, maybe it was a little uncomfortable when one of his tentacles had wrapped around his throat.
And when Azul started sobbing in despair for himself; body, mind, and soul corrupted via the blot that had overtaken him. Completely, without warning.
And when Jade’s composure had slipped, only once, when Azul had finally gone over the edge into grief over his past. (Floyd would never admit it, but it had scared him. Truly. He couldn’t get the image out of his head, even now: days after the incident.)
There was just no way anyone could’ve died, or gotten hurt terribly enough to constitute hospitalization. He refused to believe it.
And now, in this classroom, he still vehemently denied the possibility.
Floyd let his bottom lip jut out into a pout when Goldfishie started lecturing him about ‘etiquette’, and ‘rules of education’ again during this Study Hall period. It amused him a great deal to have the little fishie get so red and riled up, but it did get pretty annoying after a little while.
“…this is the third time this week you’ve blatantly disregarded the Educational Standard of the prestigious school that is Night Raven College—are you even listening to me?!”
Goldfishie literally had to jump to wave his hand in front of the eel Mer’s face, but Floyd couldn’t feel the amusement he normally would. He was bummed out right now.
“Yeah, yeah…somethin’ bout not throwin’ paper at the anemones in class, or whatever.” Floyd scowled. “How many times are ya gonna yell at me about this, Goldfishie? It’s gettin’ real annoying.”
Goldfishie began to turn red again.
“As often as I need to, if I’m going to get any of this drilled into your thick head, Floyd Leech!” His hand twitched towards his magic pen, but he was making a clear effort to not pull it out.
Floyd rolled his eyes, instead choosing to zone out on a pile of books near their shared table. Don’t get him wrong, he loved being able to screw with Goldfishie as much as he wanted, and it was so easy with the seating arrangements, but it meant that he’d be getting lectured every other day…
“Tch, short stacks are always the angriest outta the bunch. Why don’t ya skedaddle back off to Chevalier? He’ll laugh at your jokes instead of your vertical challenges.”
It seemed that was the final straw for Goldfishie, as he had immediately pulled out his magical pen and pointed it directly at Floyd. He didn’t even have enough time to use Bind the Heart, with how fast the Housewarden of Heartslabyul was.
“OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!”
The red and black heart-shaped collar snapped around Floyd’s neck.
The eel Mer’s body locked up instantly, and cold fear struck his heart. Pure, unadulterated terror settled in his chest, and squeezed his lungs harder than he could have ever squeezed his prey.
Hands went straight to his neck, clawing and clawing and clawing and clawing and clawing and clawing and clawing and clawing—
“Floyd?!”
He couldn’t breathe couldn’t breathe couldn’t breathe couldn’t breathe couldn’t breathe couldn’t breathe couldn’t breathe couldn’t breathe couldn’t breathe couldn’t breathe couldn’t breathe couldn’t breathe—
“Floyd, can you hear me?!”
The tentacle was wrapped around his throat again, stealing away the air in his lungs, and stiffening his limbs as he froze within its grasp. Azul’s its limb refused to let go no matter how desperately he scratched at his epidermis. It’s suckers stung his skin, cutting; it was unbearable.
Asphyxiation was right around the corner, he was going to die, die because he couldn’t help his best friend until it was too late, and he was going to die, and Azul was going to die, and Jade was going to die, and everyone was going to die, and it was all his fault—
“Floyd, look at me. No one’s dying, you aren’t going to die, you’re safe—the collar is off!”
The tentacle was gone, and Floyd could finally breathe.
He gasped for air before letting out a loud, gut-wrenching sob into his hands. If he wasn’t crying before, he surely was now. The tears streamed from his human eyes and dropped down to his (now disheveled) uniform. He flinched when a hand was placed on his shoulder, but quickly launched himself into whomever had just touched him, grabbing at their shirt and burying his face into their chest.
Then, two more hands—one on his head, the other rubbing his back like a mother would to her child.
“You’re okay, puppy.”
Floyd only sniffled in response. He leaned further forward, before the haze of exhaustion came over his mind, wrapping around him like clouds over the moon. It didn’t take long for him to slump down and let sleep take him under.