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As soon as they get home, Etho starts collecting rocks.
He picks them off the ground around their base with little care. A few, mainly the smaller ones, are regarded and then thrown back. The rest are gathered into his right hand, thumb rubbing circles over the smoother ones to cast away the dirt that still clings to them. His left hand hovers over his hip, the slightest of shakes visible to a keen eye, fingers dancing over the hilt of his sheathed sword. He doesn't lean down to pick the stones up, rather, he crouches, ready to strike.
Bdubs watches him with folded arms from the balcony next to their- no, his- Etho's? house. Despite Etho being on high alert, it would be very easy to jump down and get the first hit. Diamond axe clean between the shoulder blades, a foot on his back to keep him down for another to the head. He keeps watching.
Fifteen rocks in, they start to slip out of Etho's hand. Even with his head down, Bdubs can see his partner's frustration as he tries to keep them all balanced in his palm.
"Idiot," he mutters under his breath, and then a little louder, "You need help there?"
"Nope," is his answer, and despite the firm tone, Bdubs has known Etho long enough to hear when his voice trembles.
"Stubborn as ever." Bdubs hops off the balcony, stumbling down to meet Etho at the bottom. His friend's hand gets a little closer to his sword, but Bdubs doesn't back away. "What are you collecting those for, anyhoo?"
"A line," Etho responds, keeping his head down. He pushes another rock into his hand, immediately nudging one out of place and onto the ground. "To seperate us."
Ah, so that was the plan? Whatever happened to 'I'm gonna kick him out'? If he weren't already annoyed, Bdubs might have been touched.
"We can't base together," he says. "Rules, remember?"
"We aren't basing together," Etho replies. "That's what the line is for."
Bdubs scoffs. "You think that'll cut it?"
"You'd rather I kick you out to fend for yourself?"
There's no answer to that. Etho curses under his breath as he drops another rock, and Bdubs rolls his eyes.
"Jeez, just-" he crouches down to cup Etho's hand, ignoring his friend's gasp, and tilts it so some of the rocks fall into his own. "Here. You want a stinkin' line? I'll help you make it. Just stop... shuffling around all sad like that."
Etho's grip on his sword loosens as Bdubs takes his hand away, a fistful of rocks stuffed in the pockets of his moss hoodie.
"...thanks," he says, barely audible. Bdubs just huffs in response and starts arranging rocks along the ground.
Etho gets the side with the goat. Bdubs isn't sure why the line counts in the house, because they couldn't find enough rocks to lay the line in there. Etho says the line is sacred, and Bdubs should respect the principle of it all, and also he brought the goat so finders keepers. Because of course he does.
Bdubs gets all of five minutes to look through the chests and take what's definitely his, as well as some supplies. Because they're not basemates anymore, and they're certainly not allies, and that means no sharing. He sets up a basic campfire and a barrel full of rations on his side, right next to the soul soil they never got to to clear away.
"Do you want the bed?" Bdubs offers, and "No" comes the expected response. Bdubs shifts the bed outside, knowing Etho would refuse to sleep inside if Bdubs was there.
Neither of them sleep the first night, anyway. Etho lies outside, dogs tucked around him like a barrier. Bdubs sits cross-legged by his fire and pokes it with a stick, trying to ignore how he doesn't flinch away now when sparks grace his hand.
He takes a rock from the edge of the campfire and places it with the rest. It's painted black with soot.
"Thought your line could use a little sprucing up," he calls over to Etho. Etho laughs, though it seems more of an acknowledgement than genuine amusement.
"I'm going hunting, do you want anything?" Bdubs calls over the line one morning, and Etho pretends he doesn't hear him.
Bdubs gives him a good few seconds before he tries again. "I said, I'm going hunting. Do you need food?"
"I'm fine," Etho says tersely, but the way it's forced out through gritted teeth screams anything but. Bdubs kicks the cinders up from his fire pit on his way out.
He hunts alone, but he isn't lonely. It's freeing, actually; being red is nowhere near as bad as that godforsaken itch that had overtaken him the first night, but it still takes time getting used to. It takes strength to look at Etho and not see a target.
Bdubs pins a rabbit down with one foot and bashes its head in with a dull rock. He does his best to wash the blood from it at the riverbank, and places it in the line when he gets back home. Etho doesn't question the addition, but regards it with such wariness that Bdubs wonders if he knows what he's done with it. Then again, Etho's wary of everything nowadays.
It's a good day. The weather the last few days has been overcast. Bdubs comments on this when Etho finally emerges from the house with bleary eyes. It looks like he finally slept.
"You can't keep staying awake for days on end," Bdubs reprimands him. He keeps his gaze just past Etho at the castle wall; it's been several days since he hunted, and he really needs to go again before bloodlust gets the better of him. "Even a couple hours is better than none."
Etho doesn't say anything, but gives him a look that says everything. You know why I'm not sleeping.
Bdubs kills three rabbits and a fish. He shoots a squirrel out of a tree on the way home with a well-angled pebble. He doesn't wash the blood off this one when he nestles it between the line. Etho doesn't comment- he's already gone inside by the time Bdubs got back.
The line is looking a lot more full than it was last week. And a lot more red.
If Etho objects to it, he doesn't make it known. Not that he's out enough to really take the sights in. Bdubs only sees him in passing now, those brief few moments where he leaves the house to feed his dogs or head straight out. The first few times, Bdubs greets him. Then he starts to curse him. Once, he begs for him to turn around and acknowledge him, please, just look at me, say something instead of just pretending I'm not here. Then he gives up.
The forest feels less lonely, because at least it responds. Deer skirt away when he approaches. A lizard watches him with beady eyes as he flips a sharp stone between two fingers. He screams till his throat is raw, and the birds nestling nearby rush to fly away. One falls limp to the ground, and his rock lands not too far away.
He leaves it in the house this time; on his side, of course, because the line is sacred. When Etho comes back and sees the blood on the floor, he will surely pick the rock up and move it outside, and maybe that will count for something, because if Etho is going to do his very best to ignore Bdubs, Bdubs will make it so he can't ignore him.
The rock is still there when Bdubs wakes up next morning. Etho isn't.
Bdubs is toeing the line with a heavy stone in his hands. It's one of the larger ones that was near the base of the house, one that they barely moved over. It takes both hands to hold it properly.
Etho is asleep, or passed out- Bdubs can't tell the difference, and frankly, Etho probably doesn't know there is a difference for how little sleep he's been getting, but it doesn't matter anyway because all that matters is he can't run. If Etho were awake he surely would snap at Bdubs to get back on his side, because despite doing his very best not to speak to him he was always quick to remind him when he overstepped. Now, as Bdubs stood over his friend and held the cool stone close to his chest, there was no resistance. Utterly unresponsive, although this time, Bdubs supposed he could excuse it.
Maybe if he kills Etho, he'll be forced to kick him out. Bdubs isn't sure if that's preferable at this point. When he had first went red, he had begged Tango to give him a spare life, mind frantic at the thought of having to leave the castle they built together. Now it feels more like a prison.
Bdubs raises the rock high above his head.
Etho's eyes blinks open, tiredly at first, and then wide like a deer caught in headlights. Bdubs catches the cloth of his mask moving ever so slightly, like he's opened his mouth to speak, but the words die in his throat. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees his hand scrabbling for a sword just of his reach.
Bdubs' foot connects with Etho's chest, pulling a quiet wheeze out of him, and trapping him in place. His arms tremble.
"Bdubs," Etho says hoarsely. The first word he's spoken in days. "Don't."
Bdubs hesitates. For once, his mind is totally clear. There's no vivid red streak across his vision, or gory images flickering through his head. Just Etho, his friend, his partner Etho, trembling with pupils blank and body seized with the fear of a trapped animal about to die a brutal, unnecessary death.
Bdubs drops the rock at his feet, splintering the wooden floor, and falls to his knees wordlessly. His body sags over Etho's, arms wrapping around his spindly form like a net.
"I really, really, miss you," he mumbles into his partner's shoulder.
There's a beat, and then Etho raises his own hand to meet Bdubs' back. He doesn't respond, and for once, Bdubs is glad. He doesn't need to. He already knows Etho does too.