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Water dripped rhythmically from the tip of a pointed dripstone into puddles below, the noise delicate yet deafening in the otherwise silent cave system. Normally Bdubs would chatter, normally Etho would listen, but today wasn’t a normal day. He wasn’t sick, he wasn’t short, he was entirely capable and Etho had no right to argue with him on that, even if he was trying to do what was best for them both. It was for that reason Etho was wandering on ahead, and for that reason Bdubs had his hands stuffed deep into his mossy pockets.
He wasn’t short, but he might have been a little bit sick. Maybe his head was a bit sore, maybe his eyes a bit droopy and his nose a bit stuffy, but he was still capable. He didn’t want to just sit around in their base waiting like a sitting duck for the Boogeyman - he wanted to be helpful!
Splash.
There was a drop ahead. He could hear Etho already making the descent and he followed behind, still sulking, just catching a glimpse of the other man as he rounded a corner.
The cave stopped sloping downward then, and instead of slippery stone or fiery lava he found that the floor was wood. Old rotting beams layered the floor, splintering fence posts held the ceiling up at regular intervals, and rail tracks were rusting far beyond practical use.
If it were a normal day, they would have reconvened. They would have split up their torches and gone separate ways - marking the paths they took and lighting the place up - or perhaps in this world where respawns were a precious resource they might have stuck together, but there was no such communication today. Etho had already wandered deeper into the mineshaft, leaving Bdubs alone to listen to the scuttling of spiders and the groaning of zombies.
Bdubs loathed mineshafts.
They were bad enough in a normal world but in a world like this they could easily be a death sentence. He didn’t want to think about that, not while he was alone and his head was pounding like hell and he sniffled.
Alright. So maybe Etho had been right, maybe he should have stayed home, but what was he going to do now? Turn back and leave Etho here alone? Admit that he was wrong? Absolutely not! He was going to pull his hands from his pockets, take out his shield and sword, and he was going to explore the mineshaft himself. He’d place down torches behind him to keep anything from creeping up on him and hope that he met up with Etho eventually. They hadn’t said a word since arguing but down here they’d be forced to put aside their differences, right?
Bones shook beneath him - a skeleton in a tunnel below - and Bdubs swallowed: he could be the bigger man if it came to it, but if he found an enchanted apple he was keeping it for himself.
Despite his initial fears and the recurring need to wipe his nose on the sleeve of his hoodie, exploring the mineshaft didn’t go too badly. He had a small bounty from the chests - a name tag, three glowberries, some coal and some redstone - and was feeling much better for it. So good that he might even be willing to share some of his treasures with Etho. As far as he was concerned the mineshaft was explored fully enough - he’d seen two dark corridors with cave spider nests that he’d rather avoid - and he was ready to reunite with his friend and call that morning water under the bridge. All he had to do was find Etho.
It would be a challenge. The mineshaft had been fairly well lit up and had been looted in almost every spot that Bdubs had looked, retracing his steps was easier said than done and he wasn’t even completely sure Etho was still there. He could have gone deeper underground, or already started his journey home, and for a moment Bdubs considered what the best way to proceed would be.
His question was answered when the relative quiet of the mineshaft was shattered. Instead of hearing the same usual groans and moans of mobs and monsters that sought out their prey, he heard a cry of pain.
A cry of pain that was terrifyingly familiar to the sorts of noises Etho made on the very rare occasions in which he couldn’t handle himself.
Bdubs was being silly of course - his mind had to be playing tricks on him - because this was Etho. He barely got into trouble, and when he did he could always get himself out of it! Even if the Boogeyman had found them, they’d be no match for Etho. He was just hearing things and should probably head back up to the surface, he’d find Etho there and the man would laugh at just how ridiculous he’d been for even thinking it could have been him.
But if his mind wasn’t deceiving him…
“Etho?” Bdubs called out, his fingers flexing around the hilt of his sword before tightening their grip. “Etho? I don’t… I don’t know where you are. If you’re in danger could ya keep making noises so I can find you?”
His words were met with silence. Despite that being an almost certain indicator of the noises being complete figments of his imagination, Bdubs couldn’t shake the feeling of dread in his stomach. He used his sword to cut through the thickest cobwebs and began walking in a direct path to where he thought he’d heard the noise. Without coordinates to work towards or a constant sound to help him find the right way to go he was left to rely on his instincts alone. That was why, instead of twisting and twinging through the labyrinth of the mineshaft, Bdubs decided to instead take his pickaxe and axe and make a beeline for ‘Etho’.
“Etho?” He tried again, in case getting closer meant it would be easier for him to be heard, but again he received nothing in response. The pit in his stomach now crept into the back of his mind and he worried that Etho could be unconscious, that something could have gotten to him, that he could have fallen… It was unlikely, but Bdubs picked up the pace. He ignored the sound of spiders and the giggles of witches and he ploughed onward.
Maybe this was all a practical joke. Maybe Etho had made those noises and this was his way of breaking the ice after their argument. Maybe--
“Bdubs!”
Oh no.
“Etho!” Bdubs yelled out, now very certain of the direction his friend was in, his feet already carrying him down a corridor as fast as they could. He didn’t like it, didn’t like the worry that suddenly surged through him as he thought of the things that could have bested Etho, didn’t like the fact that he hadn’t been by his side to protect him in the first place, didn’t like the fact that he’d been quiet. He raised his pickaxe, breaking stone and running through the new hole in the walls, before shouting again.
“Etho! Keep talking! What’s going on?”
“A hoard.” He answered, and Bdubs cursed under his breath. Of course there was a hoard of zombies - of course! Individually they weren’t too hard to deal with, and even if there were a couple of them they weren’t too bad, but a hoard was difficult to take on alone. It became harder if there were babies and if some of them had armour and weapons. Bdubs tried to think of a plan that didn’t involve running in like a madman and hoping they were too distracted by Etho to even realise he was there, but thinking of a plan in the heat of the moment wasn’t exactly his forte. Panicking and acting on instinct was much more his style.
When he came face to face with the scene - a dark corridor, Etho pinned into a corner by nearly a dozen zombies, a shield the only thing between him and certain death - instinct took over once again.
His sword was raised over his shoulder, the blade coming down with all of his body weight behind the strike and cutting deep into the bodies of the undead. Some were wounded in the shoulder, some in their spine. All told, he managed to injure four with one swing. It wasn’t anywhere near enough, but it was a good start. Before the zombies really had a chance to figure out what was happening he quickly swung again, this time aiming higher up the bodies. Two of the previous zombies dropped to the ground, dead, when his sword slit their throats, and two stumbled and turned to face him.
“Hey buddy, havin’ a party without me?” He called to Etho, hoping to lighten the mood a little as he glanced over his shoulder to ensure he was safe before taking a few steps back and lurring three of the ten remaining zombies away from Etho and with him. Seven was still a lot to deal with alone, but it was a lot less than twelve, and it gave Etho the space he needed to grab his own weapon and start swinging.
“Oh, it’s not what it looks like.” Etho replied, his own tone light and full of jest - as if he hadn’t been calling desperately for help a moment before. Bdubs wouldn’t rub it in now, but he’d definitely be keeping it as ammunition for the future.
“Oh really?” He asked, thrusting his sword into the stomach of a zombie. “Cause it looks to me like it’s exactly what it looks like.”
“Bdubs, you should know by now I have no interest in zombies. Platonically or romantically, they’re just not my thing.” Etho lodged an axe in the head of a zombie, his boot coming up to meet its stomach and kick it aside.
“Interesting! So what is your thing?” Bdubs asked, the smirk on his face echoing in his voice as he slashed his blade toward the creatures before him. The hoard had been well and truly thinned, and they only had a couple of monsters left: it was an easy fight for them to finish up.
“Really? You want to do this now?” Etho asked, grunting as his axe swiped cleanly through the neck of a zombie and its head rolled toward Bdubs’ feet.
“Sure! Let’s do this now!” He replied cheerfully. “Do you want to make a run for it while we talk this through?”
“Talk this through?!” Etho scoffed. “We can run, but there’s nothing to talk through. I don’t have a type, unless by type you mean snotty, stubborn, moss wearing idiots.”
If it hadn’t been for the adrenaline pumping through his veins, Bdubs might have reacted very differently to the words Etho had just uttered. It took several seconds for him to process them, starting to run with Etho by his side toward the cave system they’d used to descend into the earth, and when he did he almost tripped over his own two feet.
“Not handsome knights in shining armour that save you from zombies?” He asked, almost pouting as they turned a corner. The zombies weren’t fast enough to keep up with them as they ran and by cutting their line of sight there was no way the survivors would find them. So long as they kept their distance from nests, they’d be fine.
“I’m not sure about handsome.” Etho said, turning his head to face Bdubs with a sheepish smile on his face. “But thank you for saving me.”
“Ah, anytime.” Bdubs shrugged. “I’m sure you’d do the same for me.”
“You’re sure?”
“Well, maybe about sixty-five percent sure.”
“I dunno, that still seems a little high.” Etho teased, an elbow jabbing Bdubs in the side, and the two laughed. The argument from the morning seemed to be well and truly forgotten and they had reunited with good spirits. Now though there was something else that was off between them.
Had… Had Etho hinted that he liked him? And had he done absolutely nothing - verbally or physically - to express how he felt? Bdubs sniffled again, twitching his nose to try and alleviate the itch he felt, and he kept a close eye on Bdubs as they walked. He wanted to say something, but with every second that passed it became harder and harder to think of the right thing to say - if there even was a right thing. He knew if he didn’t say something soon, he might never say it. Not just because he was a coward and would chicken out, but because in a world like this one of them could turn red at a moment's notice and all their ties would be gone.
It wasn’t worth the risk, was it?
“Bdubs--”
“I like you too!”
His yell wasn’t exactly the most romantic thing he could have imagined confessing with - in fact on the scale of things that classed as romantic he figured it would be a pretty distant last place - but in the damp cave with no one else around and their lives still theirs by the skin of their teeth… It felt okay. It was okay, right?
“Good.” Etho replied, looking over his shoulder to Bdubs with a fondness that he swore he’d seen before, but one he now felt like he could name.
“So… Should I uh… Do we… Do we kiss?”
“I’m sorry?” Etho raised an eyebrow, and Bdubs found his eyes widening. Had he misinterpreted what had been said? Had he missed a sign, or a clue, or had he made it up entirely? Was he succumbing to mineshaft madness?
“I just thought y’know since you said your type was moss wearing idiots--”
“You’re not getting a kiss until you rest.” Etho smirked, and Bdubs stopped in his tracks. “I don’t want a mouthful of snot.”
“What?!” He gasped, incredulous, and the laughter that fell from Etho’s lips was the sweetest sound he’d ever heard. It was like music to his ears, and it was damn near impossible to pretend to be angry when he could listen to that echoing in the caves around them. “This is outrageous! The audacity you have--”
“The audacity I have to tell you to take care of yourself? There I was thinking that caring was something people did when they liked someone else. But no matter, you don’t have to rest if you don’t want to. I suppose I did say my type was stubborn, moss wearing idiots.” He replied, continuing toward the small slice of blue sky that was now visible ahead of them. “Regardless of whether or not you rest, I’m not kissing you until you’re better. If you rest, it might be sooner rather than later.”
Bdubs watched Etho disappear back above the surface ahead of him and he grumbled quietly to himself, kicking a stone and watching it disappear further down into the cave before snuffling and shaking his head as if it would shake the cold away.
“Stupid Etho.” He muttered, though as hard as he tried to pretend he was okay the blinding light of the sun was already starting to get to his head. “Stupid, right, Etho.”
“I heard that.”
“Gargh, go back to the stinkin’ base, I’ll come out when the sun stops making my brain hurt!”
“Well, that’s a shame.” A sing-song voice came from above. “Because I don’t recall saying that I wouldn’t provide my hero with cuddles while he’s on the mend.”
Bdubs gasped, suddenly spurred onward despite the pain behind his eyes.
“Really?!” He asked. “You’d do that?”
“Absolutely not.” Etho grinned as Bdubs emerged from their hole. As he put on the grumpiest face he could muster - which given he was allowing himself to actually feel sick now, was quite impressive - a hand was offered to him and helped him to clamber out. “But I will make soup.”
“I suppose that’ll do.” Bdubs muttered, not letting go of Etho’s hand. Thankfully, despite Etho only promising to make him soup, he didn’t let go. Instead his aching body was led inside and helped into bed, and once hot (and delicious) soup had been consumed he managed to convince Etho to remain.
It might not be permanent, but for the short time they’d have together it would be perfect.