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followmetoyourdoom · 6 years

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Survival of the Fittest

HAPPY LATE IRISTO WEEKEND Y’ALL

*screeches* I wanted to do so much more for Iristo Weekend but *gestures at uni work and actual work* Anyway I used the prompts Snowstorm, Watermelon, and kiiiiiiind of Role Reversal here since... well you’ll see at the end :3

A spell goes awry and ends up causing both Iris and Mephisto to be trapped in a cave, closed off by an avalanche.

Read it on ao3 or below:

The twins were back to back, the snow storm they'd called up on the mountainside billowing around them and making it hard for both them and the girls to see. Once again, another plan they hadn't really thought through properly.

Iris was facing off against Mephisto, her shield up as he pelted her with dark crystals.

Praxina and the other two girls were exchanging magic, shields going up left right and centre, neither side gaining ground.

But the older twin had had enough. It was cold, she wasn't meant for cold.

"Mephisto! Now!" she called, grabbing his hand. Mephisto nodded and raised it when she did. Their magic grew and mixed together, sparking above them.

Iris squinted through the snow. She had no idea what was going on.

Auriana on the other hand spotted the magic and put one of her shields up just as the twins cried out: "Amoveo magus!"

The spell shot in both directions, hitting Iris square in the chest on Mephisto's side and rebounding off Auriana's shield on Praxina's.

"ARGH! Stop doing that!" Praxina complained, moving out of the way before the spell hit her.

"I did it, Prax! I-" and that's when the spell hit his back.

It sent him flying, the dark magic not reacting well with his own and he crashed into Iris, both of them ending up tumbling into a nearby cave.

They both grumbled in a pile of limbs and snow, trying to come to their senses.

But before they could, the mountain above them rumbled loudly and within seconds snow and lose rock fell all around, covering up the only exit from the cave and plunging them into darkness.

Mephisto shrieked and held onto Iris despite himself.

"Get off me!" she complained, rubbing her head and trying to detangle herself from him, but he clung desperately to her arm until she shook him off.

"Nononononono this wasn't supposed to happen I can't- I can't use my magic and it's dark and we're trapped and oh Melzors. PRAXINA!! PRAXINA, GET ME OUT OF HERE! PRAXINA PLEASE!!"

"Calm down," Iris muttered, trying to use her own magic. "I'll have us out in a-" but nothing happened. "What did... what did you do to me?"

But Mephisto was in no state of mind to answer and had now wrapped his arms around his legs.

"Let me out, get me out, please, you have to let me out, idontlikethisidontli-" he stopped muttering abruptly as Iris put her hand on his arm, realising something was seriously wrong with him.

"Mephisto?"

Her necklace began to glow and Mephisto lifted his head up, drinking in the light while it lasted. Just before it faded, Iris could just about make out the tears on his face.

She blinked, rather taken aback.

"C-can you make it-" he sniffled up, "-make it do that again?" he asked quietly, voice trembling. "...Please?"

"I...I don't know..."

Mephisto whined and buried his face in his arms again. "We're gonna die."

"We're not going to die," Iris said sternly, fishing for her phone in her pocket. As soon as she turned the screen on, Mephisto shuffled closer.

"You can keep this on, right?"

Iris frowned when she saw there was no signal. "Only as long as the battery lasts. And we should conserve it."

"Oh who made you an expert on wilderness survival," he said bitterly, wanting to hoard the light to himself, moving to take it then grumbling when Iris held it out of reach.

"...The girl scouts, actually." Iris told him.

Mephisto snorted. "Sounds pathetic." His leg twitches nervously and he tried to focus on his foul mood to distract himself from breaking down again. "As if humans would know about surviving any kind of hardships."

Iris just stared at him. "Humans have to deal with a lot more than you know."

"Oh please, like what?"

"You for starters," she shot at him, "whenever you try to kidnap me and Talia and Auriana in broad daylight. But," she continued before he could butt in, "they also have to deal with war, and famine, and loss-" she listed them off on her fingers- "and heartbreak, and death, and torture..." Mephisto flinched at that last one. "You're not the only one to go through those things," she said, more gently now. "And there's people you can talk about it to if you want to."

Mephisto looked at her in the dim light of her phone. "Like you?"

"Like me."

He was close, ever so close to opening up... but then the phone screen shut off and Mephisto panicked, reaching above Iris' head for it and sending her toppling backwards.

Iris squeezed her eyes shut and waited for her head to crack against solid ground, but it never came.

Mephisto landed on top of her, oblivious, and continued to reach for the phone.

"MEPHISTO!" she screeched, scrambling for something to hold onto and whacking Mephisto in the face with the phone by accident.

"OW! What the Klatznik, Princess?!?!?!?!" The villain abandoned attempts to grab the phone and sat up, lifting his hands to his face, whining as he felt blood. He really hoped she hadn't broken his nose.

Without Mephisto's weight on top of her, Iris began tilting backwards and she snatched at Mephisto's shirt in front of her, calling out again and trying to save herself.

All of a sudden she stopped falling, a strong hand around her forearm tugging her back onto her knees.

Iris couldn't see, but then she didn't have to to know it was Mephisto who had saved her. He was the only one there after all.

"Thank you," she murmured, in slight disbelief. "I don't-"

"Turn the light back on," Mephisto said quickly, trying to convince himself that was the only reason he'd saved her. "Before we go falling down another hole."

She did so and cast its light into the chasm behind her.

It didn't even reach the bottom.

"Do you have a mirror?" Mephisto asked, hands on his face, trying to work out how much of his face Iris had broken.

Iris shook her head then handed her phone to him. "Here hold this up to your face and I'll check it for you." When Mephisto gave her a weird look she rolled her eyes. "I might as well to stop you moaning about it."

"Fine." He held the phone under his chin, illuminating his face.

Iris grimaced. Mephisto was indeed bleeding, but not from his nose as he'd feared. He had a bust lip. She sighed and moved to wipe the blood off his bottom lip but he flinched away. "I'm not going to hurt you," she promised. "I'm wiping the blood off."

Mephisto's free hand went up, "Where am I bleeding from?!?!?" He smeared the blood across his face.

"Just your lip," she caught his hand, "and you're making it worse."

"Just my lip?!?! That's not a just, Princess that's-" he stopped abruptly as Iris skimmed her thumb across his bottom lip, catching the blood.

Fumbling for something in her pocket, Iris didn't notice how Mephisto was looking at her. He couldn't remember a time when he'd been touched so tenderly before, not even when he was younger and his sister had always been the one to pick him back up off the ground when he fell.

"Here," Iris broke his trance, holding up a stick of something.

"What is that?" Mephisto asked warily.

She rolled it up to show him. "Lip balm, it's for chapped lips so it might help sooth yours? I'm not sure," she admitted.

Mephisto sighed. "Yeah sure you might as well."

Iris nodded and touched the lip balm to his lips, making Mephisto jump. She caught his chin, "Stay still then," she told him, swiftly running the stick along his lips.

Although he winced when it came into contact with his cut, Mephisto did try to stay as still as possible, tongue darting out quickly at one point. "It tastes weird," he frowned, licking it again until Iris bapped his nose with the lip balm.

"Stop licking it off, it's watermelon flavoured that's why it tastes nice. It's my favourite so be grateful I'm letting you use it."

Mephisto smirked as Iris went back to applying it.

"Hey! Stop moving," though she was smiling too now, her own lips catching in the light of the phone.

With a start Mephisto realised this was what Iris' lips tasted like.

Not that he'd ever thought about kissing her before, of course not. Why on Ephedia would he ever do that? But even he couldn't deny he was staring at her.

And soon Iris noticed too.

"Are you okay?" she asked, giving him a strange look, "your cheeks are going all red."

He pulled away sharply. "I think I've got enough on now," he had to really fight the urge to dart his tongue out again, "and it's probably the cold."

Iris nodded.

Mephisto watched her put it back in her pocket, then shone the phone light outwards towards where they'd flown in. All he could see was a pile of snow. "Hey so about saving this light… I think I get why now."

Turning her head, Iris winced. "Yup, that's a cave in alright."

"So what do we do, Miss Expert On Wilderness Survival?" Mephisto asked sarcastically, though he licked his lips afterwards while Iris wasn't looking.

She held her hand out for the phone, Mephisto handing it over to her rather reluctantly.

"You know, I could just keep you in here," Mephisto contemplated. "It's a good a trap as any and I'm sure Gramorr would be extra grateful if I delivered you to him without your magic. I'd get a promotion for sure!"

Iris rolled her eyes. "Is that all you care about?"

"Well no, I care about taking over Ephedia with Praxina and Gramorr too," Mephisto helpfully pointed out.

"Mhm, and how are you going to do that from in here when I'm the one with the torch?"

Mephisto glupped, fearing she'd turn it off. "Point taken." He grumbled and held his hand out. "Not enemies until we get out of here?"

"How about 'friends'?" Iris tried.

"Until we get out of here," he added, grinning when she shook his hand. A friend! He'd never had a friend before. Then he scolded himself. Because of course, she wasn't an actual friend, they were just working together that's all. Like they had done that one time before, after which Mephisto had started taking Iris seriously and, even though he wouldn't admit it to himself, had started to develop a crush on her.

Knowing how her lips would taste was not helping.

Iris' echoing steps on the stone floor caught his attention and he realised with a start that the light was pretty far away now.

He sprung to his feet and hurried to the snow wall where Iris was crouched down. He plucked the phone out of her hand with ease and lifted it aloft. He whistled. "It goes up quite a way, to the very top in fact. As in there's no way out. At all." He cleared his throat, trying to hide the fear in his voice, not very successfully.

"Don't worry," Iris reassured him. "They'll find us. Your sister and my friends both. Locatum spell, remember? Then they can just blast through the snow. It's too loose down here to dig through. It'd just collapse on us."

Mephisto stretched up with his free hand and scratched at the highest part of the wall he could reach. "Yeah it's loose here too."

Iris made the mistake of looking up. The snow Mephisto had scratched off fell into her eyes and she blinked rapidly, not focusing on what she was actually looking at. Which was another big mistake considering it was quite a nice sight.

"A-are you checking out my butt, Princess?"

Blinking out the last of the snow, Iris found she was indeed, if by accident.

She quickly dropped her gaze, ignoring the voice in her head that had very much appreciated what she'd seen. "You dropped snow in my eyes, I couldn't see," she muttered, cheeks red.

"Oh." Mephisto sounded almost disappointed. "So now what?" he asked, gesturing at the snow wall. "Can't you use this," he waved the phone around, "to call someone."

Iris stood up, very carefully not looking at him, and peered at the screen. "No signal, so no."

"So we just wait?" Mephisto said with disgust. "All I ever do normally is wait for one of you princesses to do something interesting and now I'm stuck in here with you! Urgh, maybe I'll die of boredom before I die from the cold."

"You're not exactly my first choice to be stuck in a cave with either," Iris muttered, stealing her phone back again and carefully making her way to the back of the cave. "We could try to find another entrance," she told him, "but that'd take energy out of us… How long does this anti-magic spell last?"

Mephisto shrugged, following her so he didn't lose the light. "A few hours maybe? I don't know how Earth time works."

Iris nodded thoughtfully. "I say we wait it out then."

She settled herself down on the floor away from the chasm and patted the floor next to her, Mephisto joining her moments later.

He immediately complained about the cold and took his cape off to sit on. At first he only rolled it up big enough for himself but, on catching Iris shivering, undid the last fold and placed it on the ground. "There, now we won't freeze our butts off," he muttered.

"So considerate," Iris giggled, moving onto it.

Mephisto rolled his eyes and sat on the edge of it. "Don't get used to it."

Eventually the pair started chatting casually, the awkward moment from earlier in the back of their minds. Iris didn't even notice they'd managed to shuffle closer and closer together until she bumped shoulders with him.

"Heh, sorry," Iris drew back a little, wincing as she checked the battery life on her phone - 12%. "Hey is your magic back yet?"

Mephisto tried to summon his magic circle with little success. "Nope. Yours?"

"No…" Iris sighed after attempting to do the same.

Gulping, Mephisto tried not to let the worry show on his face. If he had to face being in the dark again, especially without his magic… He didn't really want to consider what sort of mindset he'd fall into if-

Iris placed her hand on his comfortingly, tearing him away from his thoughts. "It'll be okay," she reassured him. "Can't be much longer after all."

And so when Iris's phone ran out of battery, Mephisto tried to remain calm, clutching onto the hand Iris had left in his. "You're so cold," he whispered, feeling a little guilty since he had gloves on and she didn't. "Give me your other hand." Iris did so and Mephisto enclosed both in his, covering them completely. "Better?" he asked, glad for a distraction.

"Much, thank you." She smiled in the darkness, grateful Mephisto couldn't see her blush.

She tried to convince herself this was just to keep warm, that he couldn't mean anything by this. Besides, he was the enemy, and she was with Nathaniel. Though she couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to be with someone she could be herself with.

Someone she didn't have to lie to to keep safe, someone that could keep up with her on so many levels.

As yet more time passed and the pair started getting closer together, both for warmth and comfort, Iris started to worry more and more about their chances of survival. She hadn't even considered them not making it out of this, that ever consistent ball of optimism inside of her failing fast the more she shivered, the more hunger pains stabbed her.

Mephisto was shaking almost constantly now, both out of fear and from the cold.

Iris' necklace would light up from time to time, as if she didn't already know there was a person in need near her. And while Mephisto would drink this light in, Iris would get more and more frustrated every time.

By the fifth time it shone, Iris snatched it off her neck angrily. "There's nothing I can do, okay?" she told it, ignoring Mephisto despite how close he was. "I can't help either of us right now, I'm useless, so stop reminding me!" She dissolved into tears, pendant slipping out of her hands as she buried her face in them.

It landed in Mephisto's lap and his fingers reached for it automatically. Right there was the key to his future, the key to Gramorr wining and taking over Ephedia.

When Iris felt careful fingers at her neck, her head jerked up.

"Relax, Princess," Mephisto muttered, "I'm just making sure you don't lose your charm. You'll need it when your magic returns." He fastened it rather clumsily, running his finger under it afterwards to check it wasn't going to fall off. "There."

Iris whispered a thank you, rubbing the tears off her face. Shakily, she placed her head on his shoulder. "Is this okay?" she asked, "I kind of need someone to lean on right now."

He took her hands in his again. "It's perfect," he replied, truly meaning it. They both needed some comfort at this time. "Besides," Mephisto cleared his throat, trying to ignore the pitter patter of his heart, "gotta share body warmth huh?" Yes. That's all this was.

"Sure." Iris smiled, wondering if it could be more than that.

"I guess I was wrong with the timing of the spell, sorry," Mephisto muttered, wishing either one of them had their magic back. "I don't suppose you have any food in your pockets?"

Iris bit her lip, her own hunger gnawing at her stomach. "No, sorry."

Mephisto whined. He hadn't eaten since the previous day, and even then that hadn't been much, just a sandwich he'd managed to steal from an unsuspecting middle aged businessman. And it had been mostly salad. He was already feeling light headed from the lack of glucose.

And so it was unsurprising, at least to him, when he felt himself slipping and he slumped against Iris, hands holding hers going limp.

"Mephisto ow, get off… Mephisto?" she shook him gently, harder when she got no response.

The panic set in and her necklace glowed even stronger this time if possible, allowing Iris to see how unnaturally pale he looked, almost sickly, even in the bright pink light.

"Stop it, I can't do anything!" she cried, trying to wake Mephisto up, desperately wrapping him in his own cape. Even if he was her enemy, she didn't want him to die. She didn't want this to be the end. Not to mention what Praxina would do if he did. Iris didn't even want to think about it, didn't even want to imagine facing such grief fueled fury - and she hoped she never would.

The glow of her necklace grew and grew, engulfing the pair in a bright pink light. When it cleared, Iris was in her shanila mode, hair shining above her and rocks reflecting the light all around her.

One blast of magic at the snow wall shot the entire contents outwards, the mountain above them rumbling menacingly.

Quickly, Iris picked Mephisto up as if he weighed nothing, holding him in her arms, then teleported outside the cave. She watched as yet more snow fell down the mountain and sealed it up once again.

A moan from her arms caught her attention and she glanced down at Mephisto. "Oh I did die then," he muttered, "didn't know I'd lie with the stars though… that's nice."

Iris destransformed and fell under Mephisto's weight, both of them ending up in the snow.

Mephisto screeched, the cold stunning him awake, and sprang to his feet. "WHAT THE KLA- Iris?" he looked around for her, making a strange noise at the back of his throat when he saw her buried in the snow. It wasn't long before she was in his arms, shivering and holding on to him tightly despite his cape that was wrapped around her.

"We s-should… should l-leave," she mumbled, tugging the cape tightly around her.

But before they could, a gem appeared in front of them, a brilliant dazzling green one, the exact same colour of Mephisto's eyes.

#iristo #iristo weekend #lolirock #mephiris #hurt/comfort #my writing

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