Chapter Text
Another chance is all Till had ever wanted. To fix those decisions he made rashly, to understand more of what he never knew, now he finally got that chance, with the one person he understood the least who he watched die stood right before him.
The two had been travelling all night, running as fast as they could despite Till's bare feet against the dry soil making it hard to run. It got to a point that Ivan had to carry him on his back, running while panting like a dog trying to get as far away as they could from those gardens before the alarms could wail. It felt like home, clinging onto Ivan's back while he laughed as he ran, reminded him of how many times he had declined the offer but watched as Mizi got carried around. It was more fun than he thought it would be.
Night passed quickly as they ran to the city, Till had never expected that the distance between the main city and Anakt Gardens was actually further than he anticipated. Constantly having to be on and off Ivan's back since despite his muscles and stamina, Ivan couldn't run the entire way with Till on his back and kept needing a break.
Till had his doubts, fears of leaving Mizi and Sua, Acorn and Marty, all of his friends behind back at the gardens. But they'd come back one day to save them before they ended up on stage. Acorn was definitely deserving of it after that stunt Till had pulled to survive back in round 2. Admittedly, it was a scumbag move to pull, but Till had been beyond desperate to survive.
Then the sun rose, both of them had pulled an all nighter, running to get away, but the adrenaline was too much to sleep. Not when they were finally out. They weren't free yet, if anybody noticed them, they were as good as gone. Fortunately, humans in public tended to be dressed in the same way as the Anakt clothing, but their lack of collars and wandering without a segyein would quickly give them away if they didn't find a way to make themselves less noticeable.
"Ivan."
"Hm?"
"There's segyein looking at us."
Walking side by side had made Till feel most comfortable. After what happened in Round 6, it felt like being away from Ivan for even a moment would have him wake up and have to relive again seeing that cold, bloody, wet corpse. But walking side by side after escaping Anakt Gardens also meant that they drew more attention to themselves. It wasn't like they weren't recognisable faces, especially not Ivan, his signature eyes and tooth would be noticed all the time. As annoying as that thought was.
Ivan's eyes wandered, looking around, and quickly realised Till had been telling the truth. Whispers and segyein chatting to each other, noticing who they were.
"Hm.. You're right."
"Of course I'm right, moron, why would I say it if it wasn't true?"
Ivan always had a habit of doing that, making out Till to be a liar. Back in the Gardens he used to follow him around and steal his stuff, but never admit it so the segyein thought Till was doing it for attention. Attention was the last thing he had wanted from those monsters.
Though Ivan seemed to remain quiet after that, walking beside Till. It made him nervous, not being able to hear him yapping, trying not to focus too much on him or else he'd end up tripping and making a fool of himself. He'd already done enough damage just acting how he had with him, clinging on like a leech.
Finally, Ivan spoke up, "We should steal some clothes. There's plenty of clothing stores I'm sure we can sneak into and take from."
"Are you mental? Absolutely not." Till was quick to reject.
Stealing clothes? There's no way he hadn't lost his mind. They were trying to not make themselves known, stealing clothes would get them caught so fast. They'd end up at the kennels if they went down that route, so Ivan just huffed and shook his head in dissatisfaction.
"Then what exactly do you suggest we do? Would you rather us be walking around in Anakt attire and get caught even quicker? We can’t just roam the slums like this forever."
"Theft is still way too dangerous. Surely there's rejects around or stuff left in the garbage. We can just look around there." Till suggested.
For a moment, Ivan thought on it before tapping his lip.
"Back in the slums when I was a kid there were humans that would sell food and clothing in alleyways to other humans. We didn't leave with any money though, we could just threaten them."
"Are you seriously out of your mind?! You're doing this to piss me off!" Growled Till, hitting the back of Ivan's head.
"If theft is dangerous enough, what makes you think in your right mind that we could mug somebody?! That's even more dangerous! Are you trying to get us killed?! We can look for rejects!"
Finally, Ivan surrendered and rubbed his head, laughing. God, he was so obnoxious it drove Till up the wall.
"Fine, but we're going to be looking for a long while. It's not often those clothes are usually found in good condition and the ones that are get taken by the other humans first. I also think we should try and find something that can cover our faces, like a mask and hood, because we're pretty noticeable."
"We can look all day, I'm not stealing."
And to no surprise, what Ivan had said was completely true. They had been walking for hours, having to go from street to street, alleyway to alleyway, everywhere that had a clothing shop nearby they would go to. Anytime they found clothing, it was always bitten through or too small or falling apart at the stitches, or they were old Alien Stage series outfits that had gone out of style, so they just drew more attention than if they stuck with their usual clothing.
It took over 20 places before they found a place. Till's feet were scuffed and aching, walking around on concrete scratched at his skin and was painful. After all, he had always been barefoot because he was stood on polished floors in the cafeteria or on set, or in the fake grass of the Anakt Garden fields. It never crossed his mind that walking elsewhere would be so much of an issue. Till had always hated shoes, they felt too restrictive, but at this point, he really needed to start wearing them, which only pissed him off further.
Ivan struggled the most with trying to find an outfit that fit, every time he put one on that was too small and tight, it made Till snort and flaunt that he had a smaller frame.
"Should have thought about it before you got so big suddenly."
Till had remarked with a grin, despite Ivan's scoffing and arguing back that it was against his will.
Then they were finally dressed, in some new outfits that were messily put together but they worked well enough. Ivan in a zip up black hoodie with baggy grey pants, because of course he needed to go with everything in monochrome. His argument had always been 'darker colours flatter my eyes better', which was ridiculous.
While Till had been in a white shirt beneath a muddy green coat and cargo pants. It wasn't entirely his style, but it hid his identity well enough, the hood of his coat covered his grey hair. Ivan had thought it was hilarious that Till struggled to adjust to wearing socks and sneakers, the ache in his feet from before not helping to get used to it, but admittedly he did feel more secure this way.
Next they just had to find masks and it would make it a lot easier to hide their identity when MISSING posters would be released. No doubt Unsha would release posters much faster than his own owner. Unsha had always been on the more kinder side when it came to owners, mostly due to the fact Ivan had been his wife's beloved little human pet.
He had always lived lavishly. Getting to sit at the dinner table rather than forced to eat cross legged on the floor of Till's cell like room, his own bedroom and getting to be entirely free roam, while Till had been forced to wear a shock collar whenever he left, and always had to stick by Urak's side. Ivan had everything Till could ever dream of having, bought into an expensive, well caring household rather than the torture that Till had to go through with his owner.
Till had always been envious of Ivan getting everything. Even now, he couldn't help but feel a small bubble of rage at the fact Ivan just abandoned it all. Of course, Till had been the one to suggest it in the first place, but back then? He made that choice himself.
Why?
If he had everything, why would he want to give that all up for some kid he knew in the Gardens? At that point, Till just figured it was best to not question it.
"It feels so different not having that collar on."
Till suddenly speaking caught Ivan's attention as he scavenged through the garbage, looking up at him.
"Right, you had yours on permanently, didn't you? We were lucky the collar you were wearing before we left wasn't a sedation one."
"They never usually sedated me at night, probably because they knew I got all of my work done the best at night and sedation just made me tired and confused. I don't kick off of them that fast so definitely wouldn't have been able to run that fast if the collar had sedations."
As Till explained, Ivan kept searching, looking for some kind of mask they could use or at least fabric and a utensil they could cut a mask to. It wasn't like they were using it for air filter, just to hide their faces.
"I did try to warn you, if you kept misbehaving then you'd never get off that collar, and I was right."
"Shut up!" Till barked, folding his arms and slightly kicking Ivan's back while the jackass just laughed.
"Can you hurry up? I don't wanna be lingering here for hours."
"Alright, alright," Ivan stood after he had found some scissors and cut up a black shirt, making sure it fit before putting it over Till's face, then making one for himself.
Till checked over his face being covered enough with his hood in the reflection of a puddle, before a loud gargling noise cut off his thoughts and made him burn up. Even Ivan had looked over at the sound and laughed beneath his mask, making Till blush furiously.
"We should find somewhere to eat."
Ivan suggested, stretching his arms up.
"I know a few places from when I was young, but the food in the garbage is usually best around a peak time, when nobodies gone for it yet."
Disgusting!
Till felt himself gag and waved his hands quickly, "That's so gross! I am not eating food from the trash!"
Ivan only shrugged, "When you live in the slums, you don't get a choice. We have no money, we can't get caught and segyein aren't hospitable, you know. What did you think would happen when we ran away? Did you think living in the slums would be easy?"
"Well.. No, but-"
"No buts, you made this choice Till and we endure it together. We have to sleep on the concrete, eat food out of the garbage, wear clothes we found in the trash that hasn't been cleaned. You have to do what you can to live out here. Unless you want to go back?"
"NO!"
The immediate fear in Till's eyes had made Ivan startle in his own way, his eyes widening just slightly and the red in his eyes getting smaller. He rarely showed expressions on his face, usually everything was in the way he moved or his voice. Since Ivan never had to wear a collar, it was hard from the start to figure out what he felt, but Till had always been expressive. So when the terror on his face melted into pure dread, Ivan stayed quiet and nodded.
"Alright, then you have to accept this is the way it is. Believe me, you get used to it."
So this was how it would always be. A life with nothing, but at least he had Ivan. That was the whole reason he escaped, why he ran away, so he wouldn't have to see him fall. Till caught himself questioning if it was really worth it, if he had just gone back, accepted punishment, lost Ivan but at least having somewhere to sleep and food to eat. If he won Alien Stage, he could have everything, but was that worth it if all he would be is a thing used for money?
Till hadn't realised just how hard he had been spiralling until he saw Ivan run ahead while they walked. He panicked at him running, checking if there were sentry guards, but when he saw that it was just Ivan looking through a garbage can, he sighed in relief. Then Ivan pulled out a bag, searching through, he managed to find some bread. It wasn't much, and it was incredibly stale, but seeing Ivan's smile as he held it up, so proud of himself, made Till's thought come to an end.
It was always worth it.
The two of them sat side by side, splitting the bread in half while Ivan tore pieces off that he thought looked too bad to eat. Ivan had never been a fussy eater, in fact most of the kids in Anakt called him a human vacuum because he would eat anything, was this why? Because he was so used to having to eat absolutely anything he could to survive?
The bread was disgusting, that was to be expected. Still better than the fake slop they got given back in Anakt Gardens, but still vile. Tasted like styrofoam and had the crunch of it too, if you closed your eyes you probably would have thought you were taking a bite of the fake leaves back in the gardens. But still, Till ate it all, otherwise he would have passed out from exhaustion and hunger. They were only on day one, he had no idea he would be this pathetic while Ivan seemed to know the ins and outs so easily.
So much of the day had been spent wandering around, to the point the second sun was starting to set. Till's gaze remained on the sky, watching as purples and pinks starting to paint from within the gaps of the two buildings they had been between. Ivan said he knew good places to sleep, one or two spots seemed claimed by other territorial humans while another had been destroyed after the years of Ivan being away. So they settled for a long alley between two tall buildings, there was only a cover from rain in a doorway that seemed to not have been used for years. Rain was incredibly rare, almost never happened due to this planets environment being so dry and hot.
Once again, Till couldn't stop his mind from wandering. Anakt Garden's time had been different to the outside world. They had their own schedule that didn't mimic the real sky, Till could tell by the fact the day was longer than outside, presumably because Anakt was trying to mimic earth as close as possible, including their day and night cycle. Would Mizi and Sua be asleep then? Would they be just waking up while Till had been reading for nightfall?
"I wonder if Mizi and Sua will miss us. They definitely will have noticed that we're gone by now. The sentry guards roaming around Anakt trying to find how we escaped and make sure nobody can- that would be nice though, if they escaped."
Till couldn't help but question why they didn't bring Mizi and Sua with them, but the more he thought about it, the more he realised how hard it would be. Four roaming humans instead of two would have gathered so much attention, especially with Mizi's long pink hair. They would have been caught faster if they escaped together, not to mention Mizi and Sua still had no idea about Alien Stage and it's plans. But they wouldn't leave them forever, they'd go back for them before Sua was taken out.
"I don't think it'll be long before our missing posters are everywhere. Mizi is usually allowed to roam with Shine, maybe we'll run into her, or maybe she'll see the posters too. I never thought about it until now but, we knew each other well, all 4 of us."
The more Till talked, the more he realised that Ivan wasn't responding. Panic set in when it snapped into head that he was unresponsive and looked around, before looking to the side. Instead of sitting and talking to a distracted Ivan who maybe would have been setting up somewhere to sleep, he was instead looking directly at a pair of legs in the air with Ivan's entire torso inside of a large trash container, struggling to look inside.
"I’m trying to have a serious discussion here with you, not your ass Ivan, get the hell out of the trash."
With that, Ivan finally swung his legs and struggled out. His usual perfect hair a messy while his arms held various objects in a pile. Truthfully, he looked disgusting and messy, smudges of Anakt knows what on his face that made Till cringe.
"What were you even doing in there? I know we didn't eat much but you can't be that hungry."
"I was finding materials to make a fire. It gets really cold at night, we need it."
Right, that was Ivan's hidden talent. Till always thought it was stupid, being able to make fire with two rocks, saying that it wasn't useful or interesting, but when he was sat watching as Ivan clicked together the rocks two and the three times and made a spark on the dry boxes, he couldn't help but be impressed. The talent really did come in useful.
Ivan seemed to know what to do to keep it going, slowly feeding in more objects into the fire until it became a roaring blaze. The purples in the sky fading into darkness, the lights of the city outside of the alleyway turning on for those who lived the night life.
"You remember so much from your time in the slums, but you were so young when it happened. How do you remember?" Questioned Till, sitting close beside Ivan, who had been sat cross legged watching the fire.
Ivan only shrugged, running his hands through his hair to fix it back into place and wiping his face with his sleeve.
"I don't remember everything, just the important things. I guess it's hard to forget since it was nearly half of my life. It came in handy though, didn't it?"
"It did, I'll give you that. As stupid as you are, you have your moments. I guess it's made me realise you were right about what you said in the bathroom, I wouldn't have lasted a second out here alone. I would have forgotten to eat, wouldn't have known where to sleep, freeze to death at night."
"So many compliments, you'll make me blush, Till."
"Shut up, it wasn't a compliment."
The two bickered back and forth while the flames kept them warm. All of the running around and barely eating finally broke it's way into Till, his eyes becoming heavy from his lack of sleep. Even still, he fought off the tiredness, the reality kicking in of where they were and what was happening. He didn't want to sleep, what if he woke up and he was back in his bed again, about to start the next round? Back in a world where he was alone?
Amongst the dread, Till couldn't help his body from pressing against Ivan's. The need to feel that he was still there, still okay, know that his heart was beating. Ivan said nothing, letting the closeness happen while he just watched the fire silently. All Till could think about was what Ivan could possibly be thinking at a time like this?
But it was hard to care when the wave of drowsiness kept hitting him one after another. His head lulling until it dropped to Ivan's shoulder, resting there. The sound of Ivan's breathing and the fire crackling, beeping of hover cars outside of the alleyway and the bustling streets, it felt so much more comforting than the ringing silence back in the Anakt Garden bedrooms.
This was the start of a new beginning.