Chapter Text
The ground burnt as Pearl walked on, hood keeping more heat in than out as she carefully stepped around and led the path for Martyn to follow her. Her steps were lighter, treading carefully to make sure she didn’t fall or hit something and become a target for something worse. Martyn’s steps were harder, more confident in her mind. At least it meant she could hear him behind her - If he got into something she’d know. They’d just been joking around, he’d been making some stupid puns - He never gave them up, especially not that aha puns. She hated to admit that they’d always get a chuckle out of her, at least until Jimmy and Grian joined in when they could, and then it got too much. Or maybe it was just because Grian was always the second to join in and she inherently hated anything he joined in on, sibling rivalry or something.
It was in the middle of one of these jokes, these puns - That Martyn had stopped. Pearl glanced back, when she heard his footsteps stop. He was staring up at something in the sky - As much of a sky as there was in the nether. His eyes caught on something on the rocky roof, and despite the heat of the place and the fact she was wearing long sleeves (she hated to admit that was something she shared with Grian) she got a chill down her spine. She glanced up, trying to find what he was seeing, but to no avail. So, she cleared her throat, as well as she could in the dry air, and asked. “Is something wrong?” Her hands were placed behind her back when she asked this, but they both knew it was more prying than anything.
“What if we were actually bound and they were playing some weird trick on us?” It was out of the blue. His eyes had shifted from where they were caught on the roof to her, though it felt more like he was seeing through her than really looking at her. The nether suddenly felt a lot colder than it should have.
“What?” She asked, head tilting, though she didn’t even need a real explanation. It was almost an impulse, to ask what, to pretend she didn’t know who they were - It’s what she had to do with everyone else. But now, she was alone, in a whole other realm, with one of the few people who remembered what had happened, who knew.
“You know what I mean, what if they - They bound us and are just playing a trick on us?” He asked, eyes glancing back again. Suddenly being around so many things that shone and gave off light felt, off. Wrong. It made Pearl rub her face, made her wings ache suddenly.
“Do you think they’d do that?” She mostly asked that out of an almost habit, but she knew the answer. Martyn just let out a long sigh, shaking his head a little bit in something that felt like a mix of frustration and something else that Pearl couldn’t quite place. Pearl bit her lip, trying to figure out what to say next. She wasn’t used to conversation about them, especially not out here, not anymore.
“I- Let’s, just continue out.” Martyn shook his head again, as if to clear anymore thoughts he had, and then took a step forward. Pearl turned away from him and continued forward, but her steps felt heavy now. It felt like something was boring its eyes down on her. And, for the first time since leaving Evo, she felt like the whole world was watching her and trying to decide what she was doing.
The thought rung in her mind as she walked. What if that was the case? It would make sense, almost too much sense. They didn’t inherently like Martyn, the Watchers - They disliked Jimmy even more, but Martyn wasn’t up on their favourites list. Pearl didn’t, really now where they stood with her anymore. She had more of the characteristics of them than she’d even like to admit, running off and having to hide popping up eyes every once and awhile. Sometimes she’d pull her hood further over her head, just to hide the feeling of eyes around her, and she hated it. She took a breath in, closed her eyes to clear her mind, and then -
Within a split second, she was falling off of the edge of a cliff, dangling there, about to find out if Martyn’s theory was really real - And the he had her by the arm and he was pulling her up and asking if she was okay, and she felt oh so watched, and she felt like everything was trying to stop and go too fast, and she barely even registered when Martyn had picked her up, careful of her wings, and began to carry her back the way they came towards the portal, going off about how she should watch where she was going and how that could’ve been terrible. She glanced up at him, still in a daze, still feeling like she was being stared at by the whole world, and decided that whatever had just happened was a sign, and that Martyn had to have caught on, figured out their idea. And, Pearl felt far too secure in that idea. Far too secure in the idea of being soulbound with someone that understood. She closed her eyes and let herself slouch down in Martyn’s arms as he carried her, hands gentle on her as they walked and mouth still going on about how she could’ve died and how they only had three lives and how she couldn’t just do that, even though he would’ve been the more clumsy one in most situations.
She looked up at him, from his arms - They were almost at the portal, how far out had they been from it? - And they locked eyes, for a split second. And her heart skipped a beat, and she hated the way it felt. She hated how it wanted to stop, and she hated how his eyes made her feel, and she hated how she knew what this was, and she hated that she knew they were probably somehow bound and unbound to eachother at the same time. She couldn’t even speak, not now, her mind was just so caught on the idea. It was cruel, in a way, to bound someone so close to the Watchers with a Listener. But it was something they’d do. And she wasn’t going to play along with their game. Drowsiness slipped over her as they stepped out and into the overworld. They could deal with whatever had happened out here in the morning, for right now she just wanted to sleep.
As she really dosed off, she got the feeling that somewhere else, in another world, this was going extremely differently. She got the feeling that they were supposed to separate and that the world was going to try to be cruel to her again. Her fingers dug into the fabric of Martyn’s shirt as he carried her to a hastily made - Well, house wasn’t the right term, no - It, had a bed? And that’s what he laid her in with a sigh. Before she really slipped into sleep, she felt the marks on her back burn, and she could tell from the annoyed noise made from near her, Martyn felt it too. If the Watchers were going to try to pair them just to let it off, she wasn’t going to let it happen, not here, not now. The sheets covered her, and she let out a small sigh before slipping off into sleep.
Martyn glanced down at her sleeping form and let out a sigh. He glanced to his wrist, watching the brand shine. He wondered if any of the others could feel it, right now. Or if it was specific to them. He wondered if Jimmy could feel it how he did when they first came in, and hoped if he did his soulmate was there to comfort him. He wondered if Grian could feel it burn into his wings, his neck, and he wondered if that meant his soulmate could feel it, too. He sat down on the edge of the bed and put his head in his hands with a loud sigh. This was going to be a long series, and an even longer deal with gods that he just wanted to be rid of. At least if he were forced to be like this, he was with someone who knew what it was like. He glanced at Pearl, one more time, and let one of his hands drift to gently, comfortingly, he hoped, rub her leg. If only he knew what they had really planned, for both him and Pearl.