In all his years of 'living,' Death can honestly say he's never seen a spirit cry.

Granted, he spends most of his time by his lonesome, but the premise is the same.

He also didn't expect anyone to come to him when upset, so it was quite a surprise when Vitae crashed- literally crashed- into him one summer's day.

As the blow was unexpected, Mortem immediately went down, Vitae landing on top of him. The Spirit of Death looked at his friend (friend? Were they friends? Death wasn't really sure how this whole 'friend' thing worked-) concern shining in his usually impassive eyes.

"Vitae? What's wrong?" he asked. The Spirit of Life sniffled, tears falling freely from his kaleidoscope eyes. Where they landed, flowers bloomed.

"I didn't mean to," he choked out. "It was an accident, I swear-" Death's frown deepened as Life all but fell to pieces on his lap. Though he could be a bit of an eccentric, Vitae was usually much more composed than this. This new behavior was worrying, and to make matters worse, he had no idea what to do.

"What happened?" he asked hesitantly, shifting his weight so the rock he was laying was no longer digging into his back. Life immediately dissolved into another fit of tears and Death cursed himself inwardly for being so insensitive. He just didn't know what to do- he'd never been in this situation before.

Vitae sniffled again, and Mortem stiffened when the spirit nuzzled up next to him, hands fisting the material of his shirt tightly.

Was this normal? Is this how you comfort people? Is he doing this right? Questions raced through Mortem's mind as he frantically tried to break down the situation into simple equations he understood.

This had him way out of his comfort zone.

"I was at the hospital, doing what I do wh-when the mothers give birth," Vitae said suddenly, scaring Death half outta his wits. "Y'know, the flow of life thingy." He sniffled again, and Death worried for a second he was going to lose him to hysterics again, so, without thinking, he quickly wrapped his arms around the spirit.

He froze, instantly thinking he'd done something wrong, but relaxed a moment later when Life sighed and more or less collapsed against him.

"I don't know what went wrong," he muttered, voice thick with despair and exhaustion. "One minute I was just doing the thing with the flow of life, everything was fine, and then the next people are shouting." He screwed his eyes shut.

"I lost my concentration," he whispered. "I don't know why, I'm usually more careful- but they died. All of them." He choked on a sob. "And it was all my fault. 19 people died today because I got distracted." He dissolved into tears again, and Death just sat there awkwardly, desperately trying to think of a way to console the spirit.

"You're not the only one to fuck up," he said suddenly. Vitae looked up at him, and the ancient Spirit winced. He had no idea where he was going with this. "I mean, don't get me wrong, it's awful and it sucks and I am so sorry, but you're not the first to screw up." Vitae chewed his lip.

"I know," he mumbled sadly. "But 19 in one go? That's gotta be a new record."

"The record is 45," Mortem blurted before he could stop himself. Vitae regarded him curiously. Death sighed and looked up at the sky. He didn't want to tell this story, he'd like to take it to his grave thank you very much, but if it would make Vitae feel better than it was a worthy sacrifice, he guessed.

"It was a long, long, long time ago," he said quietly. "I don't think I'd been death for 1,000 years yet." Vitae's eyes widened.

"You can remember that far back?" he asked. Death shook his head.

"Not usually," he admitted. "But this memory sticks out like a sore thumb." he sighed again.

"Like I said before, I was still fairly new at being death, and my emotional control was... bad, to be put lightly," He's chewing on his words before spitting them out, something he knows will tell his counterpart he's nervous, but he can't help it; he is nervous, he's never told this story before. "As such, when people blamed me for causing death... well, I put up with it, but eventually it all boiled over."

"I can still remember it clear as day," he said quietly. "Phlá had been harping on about how I was 'killing them too quickly,' how she 'didn't get much time to play with them before I took them away,'" Vitae's nose wrinkled in disgust. Mortem couldn't help but agree; Phlá was downright psychotic, her mind as poisoned as the plagues she controlled.

"Anyways, it all suddenly became to much, and I just... snapped," he gestured vaugly in the air. "Up until that point I had no idea I could actually cause death. I thought I just guided the souls," he chuckled humorlessly. "Boy was I wrong."

"It was instantanious. Immediately, 45 people dropped dead, just like that," there was a lump in his throat that just wouldn't go away. It was very annoying.

"What happened after that?" Vitae's soft voice reaches his ears and Mortem starts a bit, realizing he'd gone quiet. He shrugged after registering the question

"Exactly what you'd expect," he said tonelessly. "Phlá went off the rails, and I had a lovely chat with Linea Vitam about proper power control." Honestly, he sounded sarcastic, but in truth the meeting wasn't half bad. Linea Vitam was very understanding.

"I'm sorry," Vitae said quietly. Death shrugged as much as he could with the other spirit laying on top of him.

"It's all in the past now," he said. "No use getting upset over it." Vitae sighed.

"I suppose you're right," he said, finally climbing off the other spirit. He gave Mortem a bashful look. "Thank you." Death tried for a smile. He was sure it looked more like a grimace, but he was trying dammit.

"That's what friends are for, right?" he asked, deciding to take a risk by using the f-word.

At first Vitae didn't respond, and Death panicked, thinking perhaps he'd scared his new friend off for good, but then the Spirit of Life returned Death's smile.

"That's what friends are for," he agreed, before dissapearing a flash of light.

(translations:
mortem: death (latin)
vitae: life (latin)
phlá: plague (irish)