Send me away with the words of a love song

Octave could feel his own mortality creeping in, it hovered at the peripheral of his vision, a dark mass that buzzed and shifted but refused to allow itself to be fully visible, when he turned his head it shifted with him so it stayed just creeping at the back of his mind and his sight. He felt stiff and even his strained breathing felt like it was coming from underwater. He wasn't coughing anymore though, no he was well beyond that. Though his lungs strained for oxygen he was well past the point of having enough strength to squeeze his diaphragm into a single cough. So instead he breathed his rattling, wheezing breathes and laid otherwise rather still. He knew Noko was somewhere out there, having popped out to try and get something to soothe him, though his illness was resistant to everything and the man had started to slip into light sleep when a familiar scent got his attention and slowly he opened violets to see his father enter his den, Noko clutched to his chest. Though the lemur quickly approached his side, snuggling into his stomach silently, and then a warm figure curled around behind him and Octave knew his father was cradling him, just as tangible as Noko was. The world it seemed could get stranger.

"I never got to say goodbye to Kite." Octave croaked. It was his worst fear, to abandon the man the way his brother had left behind his whole family.

Octave & Noko