Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was a normal day in Chamomile Valley. Pogoriki and Chikoriki were racing down a hill on their skateboard and rollerskates respectively, something the two best friends typically did.

"I bet you can't beat me!" Pogoriki shouted.

"Nonsense, you know I always win!" Chikoriki responded.

The two giggled at each others' statements, before eventually staring at each other for a while as they went down the hill. Chikoriki eventually focused on what was in front of him, but Pogoriki got a little too carried away staring at Chikoriki and lightly blushing, hoping Chiko wouldn't notice.

This would be when things would take a dark turn, as Chikoriki eventually noticed some rocks in front of him.

"POGO! LOOK OUT!" 

Pogoriki would snap back to reality and notice the rocks ahead. He jumped off his skateboard in time before he could reach the rocks, but Chikoriki had been going down the hill at a very high speed and couldn't figure out how to make himself stop in time before he hit the rocks and went flying through the air. He eventually landed, hitting his head on the ground. 

Upon hitting his head on the ground, Chikoriki slumped to the ground, laying motionless on his back. An alarmed Pogoriki ran to Chikoriki, picking up his body. Chikoriki was unresponsive, and his eyes soon rolled back and closed. 

"Chikoriki? Chiko, wake up. D-Don't do this to me..." Pogoriki said, lightly shaking Chikoriki's lifeless body, hoping to awaken him.

"Chiko... Don't leave me!" Pogoriki said again, now on the verge of tears. His voice started breaking as he began to plead for Chiko to respond.

"Chiko, wake up! Chiko!? CHIKO!? CHIKO!!! CHIKO!!!"

Pogoriki woke up hyperventilating. Without a second thought, he got out of his house and ran to Chikoriki's, frantically knocking on the door.

A drowsy Chikoriki would answer the door. "...What brings you here at 2AM, Pogo?"

Pogoriki said nothing. All he did was hug Chikoriki and start crying. Chikoriki, in response, patted Pogoriki on the head. "There, there, Pogo... What's wrong?"

It didn't take long for Pogoriki to muster up the courage to tell Chikoriki about what happened. "I... I had a nightmare! In it, you were skating when you ran into some rocks, and hit your head on the ground... I tried to get you to wake up, to no avail...! Chiko... you were dead!"

Chikoriki then responded. "That sounds awful... But keep in mind, Pogoriki, I'm not going to die. I'm not going anywhere."

"I know you won't be dying anytime soon... it's just a scary thought!"

"I know... I worry about that myself... but remember, I'll always be here for you, Pogo."

Chapter Text

"I have dreams... where... HE'S STILL HERE...! I wish I could never wake up from them...!"

Chikoriki suddenly found himself near his own house. The sky was gray, cloudy, and it was raining. He noticed Pogoriki somewhere in the distance, sitting still, something he usually never does. As if he was... upset about something. Chikoriki walked up to Pogoriki and noticed... he was crying.

"Privyet, Pogoriki... Is something wrong?" Chikoriki asked. Pogoriki didn't respond. "Pogoriki? I'm right here. Is there something you need to talk to me about?" Still no response from Pogoriki. Chikoriki laid his paw on Pogoriki's shoulder. Pogoriki still didn't seem to notice. Chikoriki started to wonder if he himself did something wrong and Pogoriki was ignoring him because of that.

The real reason turned out to be much worse. Chikoriki took his paw off of Pogoriki's shoulder and looked around. What he noticed horrified him. Near Pogoriki was a grave. And not just any grave, either. Chikoriki felt his eyes tear up upon reading what was on it.

"HERE LIES CHIKORIKI

A GREAT FRIEND AND A GIFT TO US ALL

1995-2009"

Chikoriki took a close look at his paw and noticed he could see through it. It was transparent. Invisible. Chikoriki nearly fainted upon figuring out what this meant.

He was dead. A ghost. He had no idea how or why he died.

"Oh no, I can't be dead! This has to be a dream! Please tell me this is a dream! Wake up!" As Chikoriki panicked, he pinched himself.

Chikoriki woke up in his bed. It was still dark outside. He let out a sigh of relief upon realizing this was just a nightmare and that he was not dead. This nightmare concerned him, however. The night before, Pogoriki had a nightmare about Chikoriki dying. And just now, Chikoriki had a nightmare where he himself was dead. He began thinking to himself: Am I gonna die soon? Is this a warning about something horrible that is to come?

Chikoriki didn't want to tell Pogoriki about the nightmare. That was the last thing Pogoriki would want to hear after the nightmare he had about Chikoriki's death. Chikoriki tried to get his mind off of it.

"It's just a coincidence. Nothing's gonna happen to me or Pogoriki anytime soon. It's just a dream. Don't think about it too much."

Or was it?

Chapter Text

It was a sunny day, the grass was green, and the field was full of flowers. A blue bunny laid curled up in the field, his fur all messy and one of his ears wrapped in bandages. He had bags under his eyes, and they were bloodshot as if he had been crying non-stop for days. It may have been light and warm out, but for him, it felt dark. Bleak. Cold. He didn't know why he was out in the field when he felt like he should be in his house, crying over who he lost.

Suddenly, the rabbit heard a voice. A familiar voice, in fact. A sweet, soft, shy voice. One he thought he'd never hear again. "Tripper! Tripper? Where are you? I've been looking all over for you!" He got up and saw something that left him in shock. "No... it can't be... Am I going crazy?" he thought to himself. He saw... someone. A little magenta-and-purple hedgehog in glasses. "TRIPPER!" the hedgehog shouted. The hedgehog looked around and eventually noticed the rabbit. "Tripper! There you are!"

"Joshi? Is that really you?" Tripper asked in disbelief. The hedgehog would respond. "Of course it's me, Tripper!" Tripper began crying, though they were happy tears this time. "Joshi! You're alive! Khorosho!"

"Of course I am alive. Why wouldn't I be?" Joshi noticed the state Tripper was in. "What happened to you, Tripper? You look terrible! No offense."

Tripper would respond. "None taken. J-Joshi, you died a few days ago! I swear you did! Losing you was so painful... For two days I couldn't even eat. I isolated myself from everyone else, I couldn't bring myself to talk to them about it! I even got sick once... I... I just couldn't handle the pain. The pain grew too unbearable to handle, that I started taking less and less care of myself. That's why I look like a mess right now..."

"Tripper, I'm not dead. I never died. Did you have another nightmare again?" Joshi asked. 

"Dah, that's probably what it was. It doesn't explain why I still look like a mess, though. Maybe it's something else. But who cares?"

Tripper and Joshi shared a warm hug that felt like it lasted years, hoping to never be separated again.

And then Tripper opened his eyes. He found himself in Irina's house again, laying on his stomach, with a wet towel on his forehead. He felt lightheaded and dizzy, as if he was… sick. He immediately realized that it was just another cruel dream he had. Joshi kicked the bucket a few days ago and he was never coming back. Tripper wanted to scream out of anger over the fact this was just another dream, but he felt too weak to do so. He started crying as all the sorrow came rushing back in.

"Why couldn't it have been me instead?" He weakly said, noticing his throat felt a little sore as he spoke.

Another day had passed and Tripper had recovered from the sickness he gained from isolating himself out of grief. Today was Joshi's funeral. Tripper looked into the casket that held the corpse of Joshi. His glasses were gone, and his brown eyes were closed, as if he was asleep. Oh how Tripper wished that was the case.

Tripper felt his eyes tear up for (probably) the thousandth time this week, knowing that this would be the last time he'd see Joshi, and that he'd never get to hear his voice or see his cute smile ever again. Tripper's other friends had seen him cry before, but they had never seen him cry this hard.

”I don’t even think my saddest poems could properly describe the pain he's going through right now" said Fluffy, who sounded near tears himself. Tripper didn't respond to his statement. Pinky walked up to Tripper and laid a hoof on his shoulder as an attempt to comfort him. He didn't seem to notice. It was like Tripper was... inconsolable.

Actually, scratch that last statement. He was definitely inconsolable.

A year had passed since Joshi's demise. To say Tripper's other friends were concerned for him would be an understatement.

Ever since that awful day, Tripper had isolated himself multiple times. He almost never left his house. If he did, it was usually to visit Joshi's grave or go to Joshi's house to water his cacti. This isolation was actually bad for Tripper. If he was lonely for too long, he would get sick. But he didn't want anyone else but Joshi. No one else could fill the emptiness in Tripper's life that Joshi left behind when he bit the dust.

Tripper soon found himself at Irina's again. His chest was in pain. He woke up to her concerned voice.

"Tripper, this is the umpteenth time this year you got yourself sick from isolating yourself. Every time you get sick from isolation, it's worse than the last time. If you keep this up, you could die. You’ve also started showing symptoms for broken heart syndrome, which can be fatal if not treated. We're really worried about you. We don't want to lose you too. Is there something you're not telling us?"

"You'll never understand. Joshi was my whole world. And now he's gone."

Chapter Text

Pogoriki and Chikoriki found themselves in the field. It was dark outside, and there was some light rain as well. They had no idea where they were, until Chikoriki suddenly spotted a figure in the distance that oddly... resembled Pogoriki.  "Pogoriki? I... I think there's two of you!"

"Chiko, what are you talking about? There's only one me! Did you stand on your head for too lo-" Pogoriki was interrupted, as he, too, would see the person that resembled him as he looked around. His nose nervously twitched as he realized Chiko was correct. "I take that back. Why are there two of me, anyway?"

"That itself, I do not know." Chikoriki responded.

After a few more negotiations, the duo decided to approach the other Pogoriki. As Chikoriki got closer, he noticed that the other Pogoriki was standing in front of a grave. This sight felt familiar, especially when it came to the dream he had a couple nights before where he himself was dead. "Could this be... connected to that other dream I had?" He thought to himself. 

Eventually, when they got close enough to the other Pogoriki, Chikoriki noticed that what the grave said looked familiar, yet different at the same time:

"HERE LIES JOSHI

A SWEET SOUL, GONE TOO SOON

1995-2009"

As Pogoriki noticed what the grave said, before he could say or do anything, the other Pogoriki turned around.

"Another me...?" he asked himself, before he noticed Chikoriki. "Wait... no... That can't be Joshi...! He's six feet under right now!" Chiko was confused. "Who's Joshi?"

Tripper looked even more distraught after Chikoriki made that statement, worried the person he assumed was his late friend had forgotten about him, or had forgotten who he himself was. "Joshi, don't you remember me? It's Tripper, your best friend! Please don't tell me this is another cruel dream...!"

"You must be mistaken. My name's Chiko. Does this Joshi happen to look like me? And what do you mean by cruel dream?" Chikoriki responded as he asked another question.

"Well... a year ago, I lost my best friend Joshi in an accident, and it wasn't his time to go, he was happy and healthy, he was too young..." Tripper noticed he was tearing up again. He couldn't keep his cool anymore as he got up and said "D-Don't look at me!" in a tone that clearly indicated he was about to cry, before running off as he sobbed.

"Wait, where are you going!?" Pogoriki shouted as he and Chikoriki chased after him.

"GO AWAY! DON'T TALK TO ME!" Tripper retorted.

Pogoriki and Chikoriki found themselves awake somewhere in the middle of a field. Neither of them had any sort of idea how they got there, they both remembered falling asleep in their beds the night before. 

"Chikoriki, I just had the weirdest dream ever..." Pogoriki said as he stirred.

"Funny, so did I" Chikoriki responded. "What was your dream about? Was it as weird as mine?"

"I saw another me, and he was sad over... losing a friend."

Chiko was mildly unnerved by how similar this sounded to his dream. "Did we have the same dream or something? Because in my dream, there were two of you, and the other you thought I was his dead friend."

Pogoriki was shocked upon hearing this. "I think we need to talk to Docoriki about our dream. Maybe he has a scientific explanation for this. We've NEVER had the same dream before."

Pogoriki and Chikoriki ran to Docoriki's house. Pogoriki attempted to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. "Why is his door locked?" He repeatedly knocked Doco's door, yet still got no response. "That's weird..."

The two decided to run back to Pogoriki's house, when they bumped into... another Pogoriki-like figure. As the three got right back up, Pogoriki and Chikoriki seemed to have recognized him.

"...Oh yelki-igolki, not this again!" Tripper shouted, mildly annoyed. "What do you two want!?" Pogoriki was shocked, wondering if this was another dream. "You're real!?" 

"The real question is, pun unintended, you're real!?" Tripper responded.

Pogoriki, surprised by how his words were slung back at him, came back with "Well, you were in my dream last night, so I didn't think you would be real!" 

“…I guess our dream came true, so to say?” Chikoriki said as he nervously laughed.

Tripper, seeing Chikoriki’s smile, felt a lump in his throat form. “Joshi used to say that all the time… It’s almost like Joshi’s back but… he’s not”

Noticing he was about to cry again, he tried to hide from Pogoriki and Chikoriki. “Leave me alone, I… I need a moment” Tripper said before he took off sprinting.

”WAIT, COME BACK!” Pogoriki shouted as he chased after Tripper. “CHIKO AND I HAD THE SAME DREAM! YOU WERE IN IT! DID YOU HAVE THAT DREAM TOO?”

Meanwhile, another hedgehog watched the scene from far away, crestfallen. He would’ve given Tripper a hug if he could, but alas, Tripper couldn’t see him. Nobody could. Not after his demise.

Chapter Text

Tripper sat alone, curled up in his house. His crying had ended a while ago, and all he was doing now was apathetically looking at old pictures of him and Joshi. Seeing Chiko smile reminded him too much of Joshi. Joshi's smile once brought him a warm, fuzzy feeling, and all it did now was bring him sadness. There were a few things he’s always repeated to himself ever since the day Joshi met his end.

Tripper was so tired of living his life without Joshi. Without Joshi, he felt lost… incomplete… as if he were nothing. Then, out of nowhere, he began muttering to himself. "No no no... Tripper, what are you talking about? Joshi is in a better place now, be happy for him." 

"B-but that doesn't help! I want him down here, with me! He's probably sad he can't be with me right now!"

Even after a year, Tripper couldn’t bring himself to accept that Joshi was gone. He couldn’t bring himself to move on. He wanted nothing more than to see Joshi again, to see him smile, to continue going on adventures with him. And deep down, he didn't think Joshi was in a "better place". He felt as if Joshi was just as unhappy as he was.

Joshi stood outside a window in Tripper's house, saddened by the state Tripper was in. Seeing Tripper deteriorate from the grief was a complete nightmare for Joshi. Not only was Tripper suffering, but so was Joshi.

Even in death, Joshi was suffering. Joshi himself didn’t want to die. He looked forward to a life where he and Tripper were by each others’ sides. It took one accident to take that future away from both of them. 

He definitely wasn't in a better place like one might say. How would watching someone you love suffer and you being unable to do something about it because you're dead be a "better place"? He also noticed he saw... another Tripper. And another person who looked like how he himself did when he was alive. 

Two unidentified figures were in the forest, in the middle of the night. They were in a conversation.

"What are we gonna do with those four twerps?" 

"...Kill them. They ruined my life."

"Who should we kill first? The guy with the horns? He's why the boss is now locked up. Why you can't find a job."

"No. How about we go for that porcupine pipsqueak first?"