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"He's been very suspicious this entire time... I'm never gonna not be suspicious of him."
The words cut through Bigb like an arrow through his ribs. He didn't turn to look at Pearl, keeping his eyes on the zombie before them so she wouldn't see how her words had hurt him. It was only day one. He had time to prove to her he was trustworthy.
Or time to calculate the perfect way to pierce a sword through her chest.
He shook his head.
"Something wrong?" Pearl looked over from where she sat on the wall of their in-progress tower. She swung her feet over as she turned to face him, letting her legs dangle over the edge.
Bigb shrugged. "No. I'm good."
Pearl narrowed her eyes and kicked her feet. She definitely didn't believe him. He braced for more questioning.
"Bigb, do you sing?"
The question confused Bigb. He'd expected her to either push her concern or let it go, not ask about singing. "...I can sing. I don't sing."
Pearl's wolf tail twitched. "Do you like to sing?"
"Not so much. But... do you wanna hear a song?"
"Yeah!"
Bigb thought to himself for a second. "Well, the weather outside..."
"...is frightful..." Pearl picked up the singing where he trailed off. Bigb smiled.
They sang together, a little awkwardly, as the sun started to rise above the horizon. The body of the tower stood overlooking the river, cobblestone walls holding stable. Bigb decorated the outside with silly frog heads and Pearl built them a home at the top. Purple hyacinths and blue hydrangeas grew at the base.
They stood under the midday sun, just outside the walls they'd built around the tower. Grian was saying something, but his words blurred in Bigb's mind.
"I have fifty seconds left."
"Fifty-!?" Grian glanced from Bigb to Pearl, gripping his sword tight in his hand.
"Bigb, kill me." Pearl grabbed Bigb by the shoulders and turned him to face her. "Kill me."
Bigb moved his hand to the sheathed sword at his side, eyebrows lowering. "Okay." He drew the sword.
"Kill me." Pearl held his wrist in her hand, guiding the tip of the sword to rest between two of her ribs. Bigb looked up at her, but she didn't look back, focused on the sword with a frantic expression. "Kill me."
Bigb complied.
He shut his eyes tight as he felt her go limp and fall over his shoulder. Warm blood flowed onto his hands before dissipating. He let the sword drop from his hands to his lap, opening his eyes halfway to watch her body dissolve into air.
A familiar sigh of relief called over the static growing in his mind. Pearl stood a few feet away with a hand brushing the hair from her forehead and a smile on her face, turning to look down at Bigb. Her voice was playful but stern as she held out her hand. "Don't panic me like that!"
Bigb reached up numbly, taking her hand and letting her pull him to his feet. The sword clanged as it fell to the hard stone ground. Grian asked something about time from behind him.
"I have thirty minutes now." Bigb was careful to hide the still-present panic in his voice as Pearl picked up the sword and put it back in his hands. She stepped past him and followed Grian.
"Two and a half hours."
Bigb turned to follow them but paused for a second to look down at his sword, his eye reflecting in the shiny clean metal.
A too-close explosion shook his skull in his head. Bigb looked up to see Martyn sneering from up on the Skynet. Pearl gasped in surprise and pain below, running for cover away from the tower. Bigb drew the string of his bow as Scott was jolted back to attacking, releasing an arrow that just barely missed.
Bigb backed away from the hole in the side of the tower and crouched against the wall. He clutched an ender pearl firmly in one hand and a pressed purple hyacinth Pearl had gifted him in the other. When Scott started up the ladder, he broke a hole in the floor with his pickaxe to drop through and rushed out one of the doors.
An arrow struck his shoulder, fired from the spot Bigb had just left. He gasped in pain, dropping the hyacinth into the hydrangea shrubs at his feet. He switched the ender pearl to his unwounded hand. Another arrow hit just below the first as he threw the pearl with all his strength.
"I'm dead anyway."
He stumbled and fell into the river, cold water soaking into his clothes. He gasped. Pulling at the contents of his bag blindly, he managed to find a tiny scrap of bread. He took one bite and leapt towards the far riverbank, the knee-high water slowing his movements.
An arrow hit him in the back.
Bigb fell into the freezing water, eyes shutting tightly.
Bigb opened his eyes.
One of his eyes.
He moved his hand up to his closed left eye. The feeling of blood trickling down his face was terribly familiar.
A cackling laugh echoed above him. "That actually worked!?"
Bigb didn't meet her eyes as she stared down at him. "Pearl..."
Pearl kept laughing. "I didn't expect that- I thought you were gonna move-" there was a hint of unease behind her gleeful tone, "I thought you were gonna move!"
"Pearl..."
"Why did you stay there, Bigb?"
Bigb felt hurt. Was she really trying to make this seem like his fault somehow?
"You are officially... banished. Completely." He glared at the empty air ahead of him, still refusing to meet her eyes.
Maybe she was right. Maybe he shouldn't have assumed she wouldn't hurt him. Her name may have been green, but her blood was red as ever.
"Oh, I'm not banished."
Bigb clenched his teeth. Did she really think he wasn't serious?
"You just dropped a rock into my head."
"Did it really hurt you that bad?"
Pearl seemed genuinely unaware of the extent of what she'd done. She probably couldn't see from up there. Bigb pointed at his head, glaring at her.
"My eye."
"It didn't hit your eye."
"It did..."
Pearl briefly touched a hand to the scar over her own left eye. "Nah, I don't believe you."
Confused rage bubbled in Bigb's stomach. "I'm literally bleeding from the head right now."
Tango- or someone with the face of Tango- walked up and circled around under Pearl. "Are you still trying to anvil..." He trailed off and his face dropped when he looked at Bigb.
"Dripstone." Bigb pointed at the bloody spear of rock at his feet. "She stabbed me in the eye. She's banished."
"How did I- no way. No way." Pearl looked with a distressed expression at Tango. He said something to her, but Bigb had already turned away, armored boots crushing the leaves and petals below his feet.
Bigb marched towards the Secret Keeper, fists clenched tightly. He stared hard at the ground in front of him. Though the bridge was sprinkled with cherry blossoms, the only flowers in his mind were wilted purple hyacinths.
He never should have trusted Pearl.
She never should have trusted Bigb.
Maybe she never truly had.