This was also posted in my Sabre-tober book, but I want to update it here since, well, I wanna try TR shortfics too :'DD

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The moon rises from the sky, it lit up its grey rays on the ground along with the cool breeze blows by for the night. The Yellow Village was quiet, the villagers were fast asleep at this time, but not the outsiders.

M was out, near the well, he rested there for quite some time now, having his own solitude. Shadow was sitting up from his bed, he was lost in thought about everything. Everything, he was processing, sometimes he questions why it happened. Nonetheless, he was still glad that the Yellow Villagers accepted them both to stay in the village for a while to think about their next move to Sabre.

Shadow knew he couldn't go back to sleep after that, he sighed, his head turned over to the empty bed next to him. ' Maybe I should talk to him... ' Shadow thought, but realizing that M can't speak at all. Maybe bringing him a paper and a quill can help them both communicate, so he decided to go for that.

He quickly got off from his bed and lit up the lantern on his night desk, he searched in the room for a book and quill, lucky that he did find one. He made his way down to the ground floor and exited the house, there he found M stargazing, not too long after M snapped out of it and saw Shadow at the door.

The brunette slowly walked his way over to M, and made it, though he kept his distance away from the red head just to reassure him he's not gonna do anything. Really, being next to the one who slaughtered the people you care about would be terrifying and nerve-wrecking, but also awkward at the same time.

" Hey M. " Shadow greeted first, he placed the lantern over on the well and carefully didn't budge it to make it fall in. He turns over to M, he was looking at Shadow with those same tired garnet eyes. The rainbow stitches were clear on his mouth since the strings were glowing.

Both boys sat on the ground, back against the cobble built well behind them and the fire inside the lantern was the only bright light source they have to see each other clearly. Shadow gave the book and quill to M and M took them since he knows that Shadow needs to talk to him. Shadow didn't say anything yet though, still felt awkward and nervous, knowing M hates him.

Soon Shadow's eyes wandered over to the cloth that M was holding, a black bandanna. He remembered that he asked one of the Yellow Steves for a mask, to cover up the horrible stitches on his mouth. M probably felt too much attention that it was getting, covering it up was his only solution.

Shadow sighed, placed a shoulder and M tensed up.

" Sorry, about everything.... "

M slowly turned around to the brunette, he can't tell what he was feeling right now. The blindfold covered his eyes and his mouth was just shut, there was no way for M to know his expression. He couldn't even tell if he heard Shadow being remorse or sad at this point, too tired to think of things in this kind of hour.

M was still mad at him, destroying his own home and losing his old life, but he can't really be mad at him forever. Sure they are working together to put an end of the chaos, but knowing each other during the fights, M is hesitant on forgiving Shadow.

The Redhead didn't have a second thought but he removed Shadow's hand off of his shoulder- which Shadow didn't really care much about it- and huddled to himself closer, pulling his legs close and he looked up back to the sky. The brunette pulled his right leg up, and looked over their silhouette when the lantern shined behind them. M still isn't touchy around him, well they both aren't really are. 

Sure M showed Shadow how to be sympathetic to the Yellow Steves and Shadow trained M a bit with sword wielding and attacks, but with the past haunting them both its not enough for them to be that touchy and all.

Shadow was really sorry, he doesn't know the full story about M with Twisted yet but he knows he was the reason his life went down to this. With the robot also gone, Shadow noticed that M was worried sick and didn't even stop walking to find it, he kinda guessed he know what it is, or maybe belonged to someone he knows, or in general knows what originally is.

The brunette was so lost in thought about their situation, that M had to nudge him on the shoulder. It was already 10 minutes since they've been quiet next to each other, and Shadow felt like he needed to do or say something to M.

Then he got an idea. Stupid, but its one way for M to enjoy.

" Let's head inside, we can talk there, or just in general something that you can enjoy. "

M shrugged at that, and they both stood up. They headed back inside the house, it was quite dark but with the lantern Shadow held it light up a bit in the room. Shadow placed the lantern on the desk and looked over to M, placing the book and quill on the nearby drawer, and Shadow stood there a bit to think.

' I'm gonna regret this decision soon... '

Shadow walked over to M, stopped and raised his arms open. M looked at him confused until Shadow spoke. " You can punch me right here and now and I won't fight back, I know you're mad at me but dropping this opportunity would be a waste. " M stared at Shadow shocked for a bit, but nonetheless, he shrugged.

Not even seconds later, M launched at Shadow, throwing his fast hard on Shadow's cheekbone and it was enough for the brunette to fall down to the wooden floor. Shadow didn't even expect the attack to be that quick, guessed that M wanted to do tat for a while now. He spitted out a bit off blood, small blood coming out from his mouth and he coughed some out that it landed on his own shirt.

He looked up at M, hand still clenched and stood there for a moment. Soon Shadow stood back up on his feet, wiping off some of the blood from his mouth and spoke up.

" Feel better? "

M looked at Shadow, his eyes squinted and he shrugged. Shadow sighed.

" Well at least you did what you wanted, right? "

M nodded.