He’s been walking for hours. Poe doesn’t know exactly how many, but he can tell. His legs are so weak he’s scared his knees will give in right then and there. His body begs him to take a break, but his brain knows better.
He needs to rest, and he despises himself for it. He despises how dry his mouth is, how thick the sweat rolling down his back is, how useless his eyes are when they’re half-open like this. He’s tired, but he doesn’t dare to stop.
Ranpo is unconscious on his back, and he needs help, and Poe would be damned if he let him down just because of his own stupid weakness.
He was thinking about it, how he found himself in this situation, but that was at the beginning; now he just walks and keeps his thoughts in order, doesn’t let any of them go wild. It’s better this way.
Who cares that some unknown ability user appeared out of nowhere and sent them in the middle of the desert, with nothing but each other? Who cares if they all should have had been more careful, maybe should have had seen it coming too? Who cares if the Armed Detective Agency probably doesn’t know they’re gone?
Poe can’t turn back time. It’s useless to beat himself up for things he can’t change.
What matters now is that he has to get to civilization as soon as possible; if he’s lucky, that will be before it gets dark. If he’s not, he’ll have to hope that they’ll be alive when the sun rises the next day.
No matter what, he mustn't stop walking. Who knows what wounds Ranpo has after getting hit by that blast.
It makes a shiver run down his spine – the thought of him never waking up – but Poe tries not to think about it too much, tries to focus on walking instead.
He doesn’t know when, but at some point, he starts mumbling to himself; and then those monologues end up being directed at Ranpo, although he doubts Ranpo can hear him.
“You shouldn’t have entered that building. You knew you were unarmed, and you knew you would put yourself in danger if you did, but you did it anyway.”
He squints as soon as he looks up at the sky. The sun is too bright and his eyes aren’t strong enough, and so he looks down at the sand again.
“And it was so stupid of you. Brave maybe, yes, but just so stupid that I really don’t know why I went after you.”
It’s a lie. He knows why he went after him, but he doesn’t want to admit it out loud. It’s pathetic, really; how even when he knows Ranpo doesn’t hear a thing he says, he’s still too scared to say just how much he cares about him.
He would do it again. He would go after him as many times as Ranpo asked him to.
“And you should cut it off already and wake up before I lose my mind and get us both killed, are you listening to me? If you wake up now, I’ll forgive you for being as stupid as you were. Please, just-”
His vision is swimming, and he wipes away the few, hot tears that roll down his cheeks. He sniffles and muffles the sob that escapes his lips with his hand. The tears taste like salt in his mouth; they remind him of just how thirsty he is, and he promises not to cry again.
“I need you to wake up, you idiot. Don’t you dare call yourself my friend again if you don’t wake up right now.”
The way he holds Ranpo reminds him of that one time he gave Ranpo a piggyback ride, but the thought brings more tears in his eyes and he pushes it at the back of his mind.
Don’t think. Just walk. It’ll be okay He repeats the sentences in his head, over and over again.
“You know, if- if you think it’s too much work to wake up just- just move around a little bit. Just- just do something. It almost feels like you’re-”
He stops, puts him down and presses two fingers on his neck. After he makes sure there’s a pulse – and after listening to Ranpo’s heartbeat for longer than necessary – Poe scoops him up in his arms and places him on his shoulders again, with such ease like he’s done it a thousand times.
“If you die, I’ll kill you and then kill myself afterwards, do you understand?”
That’s the last thing he remembers when he wakes up. It takes him a moment to remember where they are, but when he does, his eyes widen and he jumps on his feet, looking around him like a maniac, until he spots Ranpo’s body beside his own.
He doesn’t calm down, not when he places two fingers on Ranpo’s neck and knows he’s alive, not when he realizes he must have fallen asleep while walking and nothing else happened. His heart has long started banging on the walls of the prison that is his chest, and is begging to be set free.
He stands up, ignores how painful it is to do it, takes Ranpo on his shoulders, and starts walking again.
Maybe if they’re lucky enough, they’ll stay alive and go home. Maybe if Poe is lucky enough, Ranpo will wake up before they do. Maybe if Ranpo is lucky enough, Poe won’t give up.
Then again, Poe never really believed in luck.
He has already felt the need to stop trying and let the two of them die there so many times it’s almost embarrassing. He tries to be strong, but there’s a part of him that knows he may not be strong enough.
Ranpo expects too much of him. He better thank him when he wakes up, and he better make it up to him when they finally go home.