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Etho didn't come around until after Bdubs had moved out of the half-house compromise, even though Doc owned the other half and had been her advancement race teammates the last time she'd committed to anything long enough to stay. Bdubs was too busy to feel anything about that, too busy to visit the far-off jungle where Etho had settled, as if she had been there all this time and it was the rest of the nHo who had left, not her.
Bdubs was good at taking Etho's Etho-ness in stride, even when Keralis practically tried to ruin the very first time Etho bothered to come visit by complaining about how she'd killed all those cats during the assassination attempt. Etho had put both their communicators on mute and motioned for Bdubs to lead her through the new base, making Bdubs forget to be angry with her for working for the blighted Goatfather and Beef - basically everyone but Bdubs.
It was hard to remember to feel ignored when Etho smiled like that, eyes crinkling shut to compensate for her mouth being covered as she complimented Bdubs' handiwork. Mainly the feeling it induced was suspicion of a different kind; Etho was never this effusively nice without an ulterior motive.
"You're amazing, did I ever tell you that?" Etho said, leaning too casually in the doorway to Bdubs' bedroom as Bdubs sat on the bed and gestured at the wallpaper, the dresser, all the ordinary things.
Bdubs barked out a laugh, but Etho kept leaning there like she was expecting a different answer. Ulterior motive indeed. "I know what this is," Bdubs said, and was rewarded when Etho straightened, faux-casual; Bdubs had her now. "You never visit, you didn't come here just for some tour."
"Oh?" Etho stepped forward, a little intimidating, a little anticipatory. "What do you think I'm here for, BdoubleO?"
"I saw that cake you made me, and the note - talkin' me up like this," Bdubs said, looking up into Etho's eyes. "You want me..."
Etho leaned forward, hanging off Bdub's every word. This was it, the grand reversal -
"...to build something for you!" Bdubs laughed as Etho stumbled backward. A bullseye. "You wanna hire me, and you're buttering me up to get a good deal outta me."
"Sure, sure," Etho stuttered out, descending into breathy laughter as she put more space between them, one hand covering her heart. "I'm thinking about it. Everything you touch turns to gold."
Bdubs had preened at the compliment, but she didn't hire building services or the Boomers, and she didn't much visit after that either, at least not when Bdubs was around. They met in neutral places, by chance or sometimes for long stretches not at all even though they had shops right across from one another, the smoldering fires of the Boomers' headquarters a sharp contrast to the ice queen's domain. When Etho left her garbage - a single end rod, probably from her stupid endbusting expedition with the nHo-minus-one - Bdubs returned it, and then returned it again and again when it kept showing back up when Etho wouldn't.
When the worst, least informational game of phone tag ever endured was pushing the limits of human patience, Bdubs literally ran into Etho in the nether.
In typical fashion, instead of asking anything normal like how are you doing, or, what're you up to today, or even, sorry for flying into you at rocket speed and making you drop every shulker you own, Etho's idea of an icebreaker was to ask what Bdubs wished for.
Still hoping that this might be the promised business negotiations that might get them collaborating again, Bdubs wished for endless diamonds and was quickly rejected.
"What's your wish, then?" Bdubs complained, rearranging the same four shulker boxes in increasingly unsatisfying ways.
"I wish your eyes were bigger," Etho said with startling speed, like she'd prepared the answer, or worse, like she spoke straight from the heart.
Startled, Bdubs had managed a bright "Okay!" as Etho froze briefly like an enderman in line of sight before shoving the rest of the strewn items into the nearest shulker and hightailing it down the tunnel with an excuse that Bdubs heard but did not register as language.
Inscrutable as this wish was, Bdubs couldn't let any opportunity to show up an old friend go, especially not in the middle of their ad hoc competition. With plenty of experience making dyes for banners in other worlds, it was trivial to mix up some jet black and bright white makeup. It took a few tries, hair getting in the way until Bdubs dug up an old bandana to hold it back, but in the end Etho's wish was undeniably granted.
Bdubs left the end rod and the bandana with the evidence of the granted wish, since at the current pace it could be weeks or months before Etho showed up in person again. Looking at your own face was always disorienting, but the satisfaction of besting too-perfect Etho won out. The longer Bdubs looked the more natural it seemed, familiar features looking just a little more at home, a little less uncanny in their new proportions. There was still plenty of eyeliner leftover - it would've been wasteful to toss it, when it looked so nice and Etho's reaction would be even better in person, even if it took a long time to experience.
Part of the long separation might have been the mayoral campaign, which, being a matter of political authority Etho avoided at almost all cost, but Bdubs' responsibilities to the shopping district and new mayor only increased with the promotion from campaign captain to right hand advisor. The new look seemed to help with either the necessary intimidation or persuasion when dealing with Mayor Scar's conniving would-be allies or brewing opposition, so Bdubs mixed up more eyeliner between crises until the routine was wholly automatic.
The resulting confrontation with Etho didn't happen as intended, since Etho just had to go and join the resistance and then win the bet they made. On the day of new employee orientation, Bdubs paid special attention to exaggerating the makeup, the shape of the eyes, the unforseen consequences of various actions, and somehow was still totally derailed upon receiving Etho's apparently custom uniform.
"For me? Etho, you shouldn't have." Bdubs was proud of the disdain that dripped off each word, even as Etho smiled at the voice crack on shouldn't. Laughing at memories of old arguments, certainly. "No really, you should not have, I know exactly what you're doing here -"
The color of the leather shirt Etho had just announced was the Shade-E-Ees official trainee uniform was undeniably close to the old hoodie Bdubs stashed at the bottom of a closet somewhere after it got too thin and fragile to wear anymore. Under the flourescent end rod lighting of Etho's office, it looked a little pink; it smelled faintly of peonies.
Years and years ago, making fun of Bdubs' worn-out favorite hoodie had been one of Etho's favorite jokes to make.
"Nice pink hoodie," Etho had said as they stopped for breath in the middle of expanding the hub Etho'd built from scratch, one side of her face raised in a lopsided smile that just peeked out from under her high mask.
There was no one else in earshot, but there were many sudden entrances and obscuring corners in the nether hub. Genny was up the tunnel too just out of earshot, Bdubs having committed the B-Team to Etho's cause - or was he closer? Bdubs' heart jumped from chest to throat. "It's freaking red, you're colorblind. I forgot to take it off, it's cold at my place."
Etho wiped her brow; she never looked like she was working hard while she was moving, even during final bouts of UHCs, but she had even more layers on. Even she couldn't to remain perfectly composed and cool in the ambient heat of the nether. Bdubs wanted, absurdly, to lick the sweat away - and then, imaginative visions screeched to a halt as an attempt to be more normal led to delicate visions of wiping that jagged hair off Etho's forehead to smooth it with cool wool...
Whatever the tail end of what the very real Etho was saying brought reality back down: "- but pink looks good on you."
"Uh?" Bdubs said, jaw flapping like a breached fish. "I mean, ha ha, but seriously, quit making fun of me. It's a very manly red. It's old and thin but it's not pink."
"Uh huh, sure," Etho said, and snagged one of the drawstrings to examine it, a mischievous glint in her eye. But then that tenuous almost-touch was gone, and Etho smiled directly at Bdubs. "It's cute and it suits you. Now get back to work before Genny starts getting on your case for lounging around while he slaves away down there."
Bdubs had thought about that and for weeks, rolling the white-capped end of the drawstring Etho had held in idle lonesome moments. Etho had seemed sincere, a simple continuation where Bdubs had expected a qualifying statement to soften. As if being cute was natural, as if it was something Etho liked about Bdubs. But agonizing in the rare moments when there was no build to grind out or prep work to be done couldn't be normal, which surely it wasn't to think so much about your sort of coworker and sort of neighbor, maybe, or whatever they were, or that was.
Surely, even if sincere, Etho had said it as a one off comment, forgettable, not worth holding onto, another asymmetrical line between the girl who had it all just right, and Bdubs, who should worry less. Eventually the entire joke had faded like old dye and old partnerships, and the intervening years apart sealed it all up.
Under the circumstances, such a deliberate and ancient reference in hand, it was a miracle Bdubs was able to speak at all.
"I thought it'd suit you. I tried it on after making it, so it should fit alright."
If Etho thought Bdubs putting the uniform right on without taking the t-shirt off first was odd, she didn't say anything. Bdubs was grateful for that. Being bare-chested, even with an undershirt on, felt somehow too intimate even for Etho, who surely wouldn't be bothered or interested in Bdubs' nakedness; imagining either outcome definitely could only lead to madness. Back in reality, Etho's gaze was appraising, a little clinical, save for the telltale signs of a smirk under her mask.
"Well?" Bdubs said, hands on hips, heart fluttering. "Do I look ridiculous like you wanted?"
Etho smiled, eyes crinkling. "Light red does suit you. You look good, trainee."
So that tone of voice had guaranteed Bdubs was going to be an abysmal employee as Etho proceeded with training, as if the ankle-biting silverfish and wither rose thorns weren't bad enough. The end rod of shame for unfinished interiors was easy to brush off, but Etho was a touchy trainer, correcting posture with false politeness and a firm grip. Lightly condescending "suggestions" sent shivers down Bdubs' spine when whispered over a shoulder or with casual projection across the room as Etho watched the endermites chase Bdubs around the office. It was almost like those early days again, except with less confidence, not more.
After finishing the first round of subscriptions, Bdubs returned home with sore feet and hands but couldn't rest. The uniform was wrinkled and sporting a couple stains, but it looked strange on Bdubs' reflection in the mirror. Etho's tailoring was close enough, well-fitted and flattering at the waist, but it billowed slightly in the chest where Etho had used her own measurements. It looked like -
Bdubs sucked in a breath, a little lightheaded. I thought it'd suit you. You look good. Maybe Etho was onto something. Etho had built herself a new body not long after they met, after all - lots of people did, even with less mad science. Bdubs knew that, knew that the ability to make the world and make yourself were one and the same - but the body had mainly just been the way Bdubs made the world, both things subject to one's own inadequacy and imperfection. You couldn't reinvent your way out of that, the thing you were stuck being because it was you. It didn't matter if your form changed, the work of your hands always betrayed your flaws. Bdubs had always known this and made peace with it years and years ago.
But still - the uniform Etho made did suit Bdubs. It looked damn good, peony pink and all.
Instead of changing out of work clothes, Bdubs hurried downstairs and walked the path to where all the leather was stored, though there wasn't much of it left. A few hours later, just as the sun was sinking below the horizon, there was a matching pair of shorts in almost the exact same shade. There really hadn't been much material to work with, especially after the prototype fell apart - but that could be salvaged into a belt, and the more evenly-dyed scraps made just a little cap to tie it all together.
Whatever objections Etho had to Bdubs' creative interpretation of uniform standards, she kept to herself. There was clearly something she wanted to say, hand covering her mouth as Bdubs twirled a perfect 360 to show off every angle before taking the little leather cap off for a flamboyant bow, and then on a whim, bending into a deep curtsy.
"You've gone above and beyond," Etho said, and then cleared her throat loudly. "Trainee."
It was strange, showing so much leg, and it meant more real estate for tactical tickles and withering cuts, but none of it could touch Bdubs' memory of a rare, totally baffled and beaten Etho, coasting all the way through the final subscription deliveries.
The world spun on, with more promises to fulfill, pranks to conduct and fall victim to, businesses to manipulate and profit to make. Mayor Scar's pseudo-retirement was almost busier than his time in full office, at least for Bdubs who saw the season's end slipping through calloused fingers as they fought to finish and fill Aque Town with residents. Etho was around more, sometimes under the pretense of employee inspections or ruses to win a prize at Stargazers, or sometimes fitting into Bdubs' routines so sneakily that Bdubs forgot to extract the underlying motive for at all.
Bdubs accepted Etho's offer to pay for the Stargazer's tune with the gaming district portal build and took a risk - something a little abstract, a little unfamiliar, but hopefully more and more natural the longer you spent with it, like the trick Etho had pulled on Bdubs' eyes. "I'm thinking about cutting hair," Bdubs said, faux-casually twirling a loose lock of hair around one finger.
Etho glanced over one shoulder briefly. Her hair was medium length for now, but she occasionally buzzed it all off when it started getting in the way, ever since she enderpearled into the fire and ice arena wiring and had to make Bdubs disentangle her long hair from a locked repeater. "Didn't you spend all season getting it this long?"
Ten years ago or at the season's beginning the meaning might have been less clear, but Bdubs was still sporting eyeliner to keep Etho's thoughtless wish alive. "I'm gonna open a barbershop to cut other hermits' hair," Bdubs said, answering the underlying question and playing pride off as irritation out of habit, even if the improvement in posture and hint of a smile gave the ruse away. "In Aque Town. I could do you, if you - if you wanted. Must be hot all the way out in that jungle."
"I'll think about it," Etho said, unusually strained and stilted, which apparently meant definitely not.
Of course Etho didn't need a change, on account of being so perfect and immutable already, still the same familiar comfort that she'd always been.
Bdubs let it go, but much later, after the Aque Town real estate auction, Bdubs flipped the neon sign from OPEN to CLOSED and left Snips only to stumble on Etho, asleep with limbs dangling over the edge of the city bench she'd bought a skyscraper to own.
"What are you doing?"
Etho looked up through bleary eyelashes at Bdubs' equally tired face; she rarely woke before noon and tended to put off sleeping as long as possible. Bdubs was pretty sure they'd invented the Hermit Book of Records to make a point about her insomniac episodes.
"Waiting on sunrise," Etho yawned, feebly trying to shake Bdubs' hands off her jacket. "I always wanted to feed the birds. You like a town full of life."
Bdubs let go. That was true, and Etho's eyes were already closed again, a gentle snore revving up as she settled improbably back onto her folded arm, using her dangling ankles as anchor points against the bench slats. Why that mattered to a night-loving freak like Etho was impossible to guess.
Aque Town's golden age of development meant flat land with no cover from stray mobs lurking in future building sites, and Bdubs was unequipped for a moonlight fight in every sense of the word - but still, someone had to make sure Etho didn't die in the night. No one else was around; she got so little sleep. It would have been cruel to skip the night, crueler still to leave her alone and vulnerable to wait through it. The only course of action was to slowly, gently settle in and draw Etho's dreaming head onto carefully crossed thighs.
In the morning, Bdubs was jolted awake by Etho's sleep-roughed laughter, fingers curling around Bdubs' hand, which had long stilled in her hair somewhere in the night when Bdubs finally succumbed to an ingrained sleep schedule and dozed off mid-petting.
"Someone had to make sure the creepers didn't get you in the night!"
"My hero." Etho sat up and retrieved Bdubs' sword from the ground while Bdubs tried to shove down the way being apart now felt like something was missing. "You want some seeds to throw at the birds when they show up?"
Bdubs fiddled with the way the sword hung after sheathing it, trying to keep from reaching out to smooth Etho's bedhead back down. "You have got to let me do your hair sometime, or you're gonna look exactly like one of those raggedy birds yourself."
Etho blinked a couple times, and apparently found some useful information in Bdubs' face because she handed over a fistful of seeds and said, "You know what? You're right. And I trust you with my head," as if that was a trivial fact instead of a major concession Bdubs had been secretly hoping for for - months, probably, since before Snips was even a passing thought, since the jungle, maybe.
They basked in the cool morning air as a few birds - stray chickens, mostly, from the power line project - started to make noise and set out to scrounge up breakfast from city scraps. But then as the glow of another victory settled in and the rare circumstance of a quiet, non-combative moment with Etho began to strike as odd, Bdubs frowned. "Wait, you said throw to the birds, right? You didn't buy my perfect beautiful building just to torture the wild animals - Etho, stop it, I'm serious - don't laugh at me -"
But Etho's laughter got stronger and more clear as the sun rose and threw golden rays between the buildings and drew halos around her mess of hair until Bdubs was breathless with wonder and laughter too.
In the grand scheme of things, it didn't take long at all for Etho to show up for a late, late afternoon slot at Snips. No funny business, nothing out of the ordinary; Etho knew what she liked, and Bdubs knew her well enough to know what that was too, and that perfection couldn't be improved upon. Maybe only tamed a little, temporarily.
It was a short, simple appointment, and Bdubs had never been so nervous for one to end, even when Etho looked at her reflection, tilting her head from side to side with a critical eye before sighing contently. "Perfect, Bdubs. Just like I wanted it." She moved to stand as Bdubs slowly began sanitizing the tools and dusting short white hairs off the chair. "What do I owe you?"
"It's on the house." Bdubs adjusted the scissors and comb on the counter in microscopic degrees. "I kinda feel like I owe you, actually. So this is my way of paying you back."
Now it was Etho who looked suspicious of the terms of a deal, and wasn't that a strange turn of events. "What's a good tip, then? You took such good care of me -"
"You've done enough! I mean, you've done too much to me already." Bdubs took a deep breath. "Etho, I'm gay."
Etho's face fell, and Bdubs' heart sank with it. "Oh." A pause. "I'm... sorry?"
There had been a thousand, million imagined bad endings to this conversation but an instant awkward apology had somehow featured in none of Bdubs' worst nightmares.
"I thought you'd be - even if you can't be happy for me, I figured you'd at least be smug," Bdubs croaked out when the silence became unbearable.
"Bdubs, I - of course it's great news, if you're happy. I'm sorry if I've been too pushy and for making it weird."
"Pushy isn't exactly the word I'd use." Bdubs crossed her arms, a sliver of comfort in the reflex of arguing back. "I mean, it took years for me to notice what you were up to, so it's not like I can hold you responsible for my own stupidity."
Etho fiddled with her hands in the way that usually indicated she was thinking about the quickest escape route from an awkward situation, but they were trembling rather severely. In spite of herself, Bdubs couldn't not take Etho's elbow and force her to sit back down in the barber's chair.
"I'll never understand you," Etho said, staring at her own palms. "I was sure you liked women."
"Uh, hello, anybody home?" Bdubs rapped her knuckles on the top of Etho's head and Etho didn't even try and retaliate or even stop her, which was the most worrying sign yet. "Are you going senile? I just told you I'm a lesbian. Your sleeper agent ultra-subtle forcefem campaign finally worked!"
"My forcefem campai - Bdubs. Be more specific when you're telling me things." Suddenly, Bdubs' hands were enveloped in Etho's. "Congrats on the lesbianism, but can you - what did you think I've been doing to you for years?"
"There's pink hoodie thing, for one." She spoke in the same tone she used to soothe spooked horses, slow and controlled. "Giving me grief about my height and then making me - feel things, when you always come up and tower over me all bragging-like. Etho, I know you've noticed I started wearing big eye makeup because of you, because I told you when I granted your wish. I'm wearing it right now!"
"So you are," Etho said wonderingly, the flat affect lifting for the first time in minutes.
"And the Shade-E-Ees uniform! You approved my shorts!"
"Yeah, because they looked good."
"Exactly!" Bdubs crowed. "Just like you're always pushy about my design choices, you finally chipped away at me enough that I realized I could be what you wanted me to be. That I actually wanted it too, this whole time. I was expecting an I told you so, not a freaking apology because you cracked my egg!"
"Okay. Okay," Etho said. "I get it now. I can explain. You trust me, right?"
How cruel, to ask that now - but Bdubs nodded yes and was rewarded by Etho tugging her mask down before squeezing Bdubs' hands again and raising them slightly. Etho's fingers were a little cold, but warming fast.
"I do like your pink shorts and your eyes. I couldn't stop noticing them, or teasing you, because I liked it too much. You started off telling me you were gay and didn't mention you're a woman. I thought that meant you only like guys - you're following this, right?"
Bdubs nodded, afraid to interrupt.
"And like you said, you knew for a fact I liked when you did things because of me. But I'm not a guy." Etho raised their hands together to just under shoulder height. "I thought you were telling me to stop flirting with you. Like you were trying to be nice about breaking my heart."
"Flirting?" Bdubs said stupidly. And then: "Your heart?"
In lieu of an answer, Etho raised Bdubs' hands a little higher, smoothed a thumb over her knuckles, and then kissed them gently, just once. Bdubs' mouth snapped shut again.
"I'll stop, if you want me to. I can take it."
"No, no," she said, eyes darting from the place Etho had just kissed to the smile blossoming on Etho's face. In a week or two when she recovered from the shock and regained full control of her muscles, Bdubs would prove it to her and win that argument decisively, once and for all. "I mean, at first I thought you were trying to humiliate me, but then I started kind of liking - I like getting your attention. That's why - the gay thing was relevant, you know, I wasn't just - and honestly I trusted you more than I do myself, but that felt like - it felt -"
Bdubs had the words, somewhere, for the free fall feeling of being gifted a way to be more of herself without her own fear and anxiety and imperfection ruining it prematurely; for all that weight she'd tied to desiring Etho for fear she'd never be like Etho to be lifted, a decade's worth of wanting bubbling up, setting up every nerve alight in a body she wasn't afraid of knowing anymore. One day she'd probably even figure out how to say them.
"Good," Etho finished, because Etho really did know her best. "I was starting to get worried this was an elaborate scheme to get me to pay for my haircut by helping you make a new body. If you were interested in making any adjustments."
Bdubs' heart skipped a beat. She tugged Etho out of the chair, both of them grinning like fools. "I wasn't trying to," she said, flipping out the lights as quickly as she could with one hand squeezing Etho's harder than was probably polite. "But come upstairs and keep talking about that fancy lab I know you've got - I'm open to negotiations."