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Cleo hardly resisted the impulse of an annoyed groan as she saw Etho scale Secure Mountain. First she had two, incompetent, tiny people following her about. Now she had whatever chaos Etho was trying to get into. There was always something.
“Moooom, we wanna burn the mansion down!” Bdubs tugged at her arm.
Cleo frowned at the little, still hating the name. Regressed or no, Bdubs and Scar shouldn’t be calling her their mother.
“Yah! Burn it!” Scar ran around in circles. While earlier he’d been on edge for just about everything, about friendships, about the time they had left, about the boogeyman… well Scar forgot all of it as his mental age took a drop.
“Not right now.” Cleo side-stepped from around the two to “greet” their guest. “What are you doing?” She gave a cold look. Admittedly, she probably didn’t look threatening with two littles tugging at her arms, constantly whining for something.
“Now’s not a good time?”
“Not unless you have an empty spot in your alliance. You don’t, do you?”
“For Bdubs?” Etho squatted down at his level.
While Cleo didn’t intend on shipping the two off to some random base…
“No, actually. Myself.”
Scar tugged at her arm, complaining that he was hungry.
“I can’t with these two.” Her voice strained but it was quiet enough that the two didn’t catch it.
“Are you creating problems for Cleo?” Etho picked Bdubs up off the ground, resulting in him flailing about. It looked pretty comical — would have been if Cleo had more energy to find things funny.
“Yes, they are.” Cleo pulled Scar into a hug, forcing him to be still for a moment. “I love them but…”
Etho dropped Bdubs down, because despite being shorter, it didn’t mean he was light. Cleo should know, she’d tried carrying him and Scar on many different occasions.
“Now, if you want to take the two of them for the day, be my guest…” Cleo looked over at the mansion. What she wouldn’t give to get an afternoon where she could freely burn things, without any tiny people running about to worry her.
“You could be our dad!” Scar exclaimed with all the awe and excitement in the world.
“Nah. I don’t think I could handle that buddy. I’m just babysitting. ‘Sides, Cleo’s doing perfectly fine on her own.”
She could hear Etho almost laughing at her predicament. Lucky him, not forcefully placed into a position with two rambunctious children for the next who-knew-how-many-days.
But even with the teasing, he seemed perfectly alright taking the two for the day, and to that, Cleo was incredibly grateful. “Thank you,” she said, passing the two off. “Call me if anything happens and you need back up.”
“I know what I’m doing.” He grabbed Scar’s hand, taking him along. Bdubs ran ahead, leading the way as he’d already seen where Etho was basing.
And for just a moment, Cleo knew what real peace looked like, seeing the crew head out from her area. Was it too early to take a sigh of relief and enjoy the quiet?
~ ~ ~
The first course of action as the three got to the “base”, was getting settled in and breaking the news to Skizz that they’d be babysitting his murderer. (Bdubs thought it was funny. But he was also forced to properly apologize for it — something everyone knew Bdubs was bad at, no matter the circumstances.)
“I already told him why I did it!” Bdubs exclaimed with conviction.
“Excusing your actions is different than apologizing. And Skizzle will forgive you, because he’s like that, but it’s harder if you don’t ask for it first.”
“Fine.” Bdubs crossed his arms, so close to being firmly set in not doing it.
Of course, Scar had done nothing wrong, so he was welcomed in with open arms as he ran up to Skizz in a hug. “Hi buddy!” One glance from him to Bdubs told everything was not okay and the excuse did not make up for it.
Bdubs stood behind Etho, as if hiding would do him any good. Etho nudged him forward.
“Sorry for, uh, killing you and stuffs.” He looked down at the floor, fighting all want to pout and pitch a fit about how dumb this was. So what if Skizz was still angry at him? Bdubs wasn’t sorry. He’d do it again, for all he cared.
“I forgive you.” Skizz pulled him into a hug as well, making it almost well worth it to apologize. Staying in Skizz’s good books meant lots of hugs. …admittedly, he preferred it a lot more to an argument.
“I told Cleo I’d watch them for the day. They were all over the place.”
“And they still are,” Tango said, picking up Scar and tickling him until he fell limp. “You sure you’ve got them handled?”
“Sure.”
It was famous last words, and as Bdubs heard that almost weary confidence already, he knew he’d make it far more difficult than need be. Not in a bad way. Not in a way that drove everyone crazy. But he would. He would make waves.
Because chaos was fun. He may not be one of the Bad Boys, but he could be a bit crazy too.
~ ~ ~
“Pst. Scar.” Bdubs leaned over Scar’s shoulder.
“Mhm?” Scar turned his head with a curious grin.
“I’m bored.”
“...you wan chaos,” Scar said, losing the enunciation in some words.
“Yes. And you know what kind?”
Scar tilted his head, still grinning. “What?”
“We are going to prank everyone. But prank them in a fun annoying way.”
“How we goin’ do that?”
Bdubs paused for a moment, trying to think through the best ideas. “We’ve got to do it to Etho, since he’s the reason we’re here and not with mom.”
Scar nodded.
“And it’s got to still be fun for everyone, so that they don’t hate us.”
Scar nodded again.
“And… uh…”
Scar continued to nod, looking a bit annoyed now. “Get to the point!”
“Well, uh, I don’t… have a point yet. I just… I’m bored.”
“And chaos.”
“Yes, Scar. Chaos.”
Scar grinned evilly. If anyone had seen him, they would have been adequately concerned. “Chaos Scar.”
“Exactly. Just, without the burning today.”
“Because mama’s gonna burn everything down for us!” Scar said, rejoiceful.
“Yeah, we’ve got to wait. Wouldn’t want to overdo it with the fire.”
Scar sat down, fiddling with his hands. “Fire…” He spoke with such deep longing.
“You know what’s real chaos? Splashing people with a ton of water.”
“But then no fire.” Scar’s joy turned downcast.
“Fire later. Right now, water. Like, we get everyone in boats and then we tip them over!”
At Bdubs’ excitement, Scar became excited too. “Yes! Tip them over!”
Nothing was stopping them. With Scar always there to back Bdubs up, they would always succeed.
~ ~ ~
It took much convincing to a skeptical Etho and Scott, to allow the two to play in boats. But after enough begging, all of them were pushed off into the water. Scott was trying to teach Scar how to fish, though failing to Scar’s incredibly short attention span. Bdubs kept giving looks over to Scar, silently begging for him to get ready.
It all started with Scar hooking the fishing rod onto Etho. Bdubs grinned at him and nodded his head frantically as Scar tugged on him. The boat lurched forward, rocking slightly.
“Hey!” Etho looked over at Scar, reacting a bit more than either of the two expected. While he was distracted, Bdubs rocked the boat back and forth even more. The waters spun as Scar linked the line on Bdubs this time, yet again bringing it closer.
As the two got in close range, Bdubs took one of the oars from Etho and splashed water at Scott and Scar. Scar gave a look of determination. He took a look at Scott before diving into the water.
“Scar! No!” Scott looked over the edge, watching as Scar swam to the other boat.
It was time. Bdubs sat on the edge of the boat, making it tilt a bit. Etho tried pulling him back on to steady it, but it was too late. Scar was on the other side, continuing to pull it under.
Splash!
“WE DID IT!” Scar exclaimed before going under the water.
“GOOD JOB SCAR! YOU DID AMAZING!” Bdubs hi-fived him underwater. The two then made their escape to shore.
“Why’d you do that for?” Etho looked over at them, almost a bit grumpy about it.
“To be funny. We got you good.” Bdubs smiled as he stood tall on the shore.
“Yeah, well, it wasn’t.”
Scar gave a glance over at Bdubs. He looked concerned.
He sensed something up too.
Usually, Etho would laugh something like this off. Never take anything too seriously. Never say it as if offended or hurt.
And it wasn’t angry. He didn’t make it sound like they were in trouble or they crossed a line.
“You okay there, Etho?” Scott asked from the safety of his boat.
“‘M fine,” was the very monotone answer. Bdubs watched him like a hawk. He went from easily expressive to nothing at all, as if stifling some feeling.
One could look into it, and Bdubs would, even if his headspace might over dramatize some things.
“Scar, Bdubs, let’s just go inside. I’m tired.”
The prank didn’t seem funny. There was no reaction.
Well, there was, it just wasn’t the intended reaction.
“He wasn’t even mad. Scar, what did we do?”
Scar gave a big worried look. “We mess up?”
“I don’t know! That’s the problem!” Bdubs whispered loudly, fighting the instinct to yell. “I feel like something’s wrong though.”
The two watched as Etho took them around the underground base-area, almost on autopilot. A small couch was built within seconds, out of wooden stairs and wool. He threw a light-weight blanket over it.
Once he sat down, Scar was the first to make his way over. “We sorry. We just wanna have fun.” He crawled up onto the couch and leaned against Etho.
“It’s fine.” The words sounded weak. Almost… little. Pitchier, in a way.
Etho watched the floor.
It was annoying to be ignored like that, but Bdubs thought he might understand.
“We going to sleep earlier?” Bdubs asked, jumping backwards onto the couch.
“If you want to.” Etho picked at his shirt, which clung to him in its soaking wetness. It made Bdubs realize just how uncomfortable his own clothes were. It couldn’t be helped though. His fault for not thinking ahead when jumping into the water.
Silence lingered in the room. Scar fell asleep, having exerted all his energy, surprisingly. Cleo would’ve been happy to see him like this, after all the running around he usually did.
“You’re little too, aren’t you?” Bdubs asked, almost accusingly.
Etho gave a “so-so” hand motion, still absolutely silent.
“Well, we gotta go get someone else to take care of us then!” Bdubs jumped up from his spot.
“But I was supposed to—”
“Yeah, but now you’re in the same boat! Or you… were in the same boat… until we tipped you over.”
Etho frowned at the joke. Well— one couldn’t really tell he did because of the mask, but Bdubs could see it in his eyes. Half of his expression was still visible enough and Bdubs was still mentally old enough to read social cues decently.
“Sorry.”
“It’s fine.” Etho sighed in what was probably more exhaustion than exasperation.
“Who’d you want me to get?”
Etho gave a hesitating look, as if even now he’d fight to be caregiver even if absolutely in no position for it.
“We’ve got to, ya know.”
He nodded, disappointment written all over his face.
“Who you want?”
Etho shrugged, curling in on himself. The silence was telling enough, he’d probably slipped further than Scar.
“I’ll go see if I can find Impulse, and if I can’t. …well, somebody. I’ll get somebody.” Bdubs didn’t wait for a response before running off.
~ ~ ~
Bdubs came back with the rest of the TIES group. He’d found Impulse first, and Impulse said he would in no way leave Skizz alone to die again, so he too was pulled along. And when Tango saw Bdubs dragging the two along, he decided to join in too, just to see the chaos.
That’s how six people ended up crammed in a small hole-house.
By the time they’d made it in, they found Etho to have fallen asleep as well, but he quickly stirred at the noise. He whined softly before hushed by Impulse, who sat down right next to him. “Just go back to sleep. We’ve got everything handled, buddy.”
Scar was knocked out and nothing was about to wake him up. Not even when Etho moved out from under him, making Scar lose the support he had cuddled up against him. Still, humorously enough, Scar was sprawled out along the makeshift couch, unaware anything was going on around him.
“Where can I sit?” Bdubs asked, standing in front of the couch, noting its lack of space.
“Ask Skizz or Tango if they can make a chair real quick. I’d get up, but…” Etho rested his head on Impulse’s lap, meaning there really was no spot for Bdubs and he knew that, but still he wanted them to move over somehow and make him some space.
“I need a chair,” he said firmly.
“Please?” Tango asked, already getting out some materials.
“Please get me a place to sit. I’m tired too.” He said it a bit begrudgingly, but Tango didn’t fight his tone or attitude, willing enough to build a chair.
“Can I sit in your lap?” Bdubs asked Skizz, pointing over to the chair.
He was met with a concerned look. While Skizz didn’t look like he harbored too much anger from the earlier boogey kill, he definitely wasn’t comfortable with it.
“Please?”
He gave a sigh. “Oh, alright. Come ’mere buddy.” Bdubs ran up to him, basically jumping into his arms. Skizz struggled to carry him over to the chair, but they made it there without Bdubs getting dropped to the floor. And while it was no bed, Skizz made for a comfortable enough chair to fall asleep in.
It might be the only time Bdubs and Scar would be friendly with the faction, but it was a positive experience, one that wouldn’t be forgotten in the coming weeks.