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"Gear up quickly jude they're above our base."
Hearing that jude fumbled around his gear shulker in a hurry, trying to keep his cool, which wouldn't be difficult usually if he wasn't at a risk of losing his THIRD gear set toda-
Wait a second...
"OUR base!? What do you mean "our" base? This is my base, parker's base, not your base," jude seethed, yelling over the absolute chaos of what feels like the whole server swarming his little shack. The audacity of every single person here (except parker) has been giving him the biggest headache since forever.
First, those losers of the Offshore team abusing a loophole in the system to oneshot the whole server. Then Spongs running around his base and attempting to rob him at every opportunity (it almost looks like he's farming deaths at this point). Until finally, the worst of them all, that weirdo sharpness showing up to jude's base unannounced, running around while laughing at jude's misfortune while he's literally taking advantage of jude's reputation to hide from the abusers hunting. And as a cherry on top of everything, the guy has the audacity to act like nothing happened, like they are still on good terms, like he didn't betray jude literally yesterday. Good lord please give him a break before he rage quits and punches an imaginary camera.
"Yeah- yea whatever your base, " sharp's voice sounds through, not showing an ounce of guilt, "hurry up bef-" his words get cut off before turning into a screech followed by what could very much be an earthquake raking through jude's base, which he recognises as a bow ult probably coming from one of the hunters. Serves sharp right.
Jude wastes no time to rush towards the entrance in hopes of getting one of the attackers with a trap set up next to his base. He brushes right by sharp who's frantically trying to hide away from view, instinctually grabbing the swordsman by his cloak, ignoring sharp's squeel of protest, to throw him down with an unnecessary amount of force behind a corner right next to the staircase. Jude swiftly crouches down right by sharp who's sitting dumbfounded in a daze, still processing how the hell his mighty warrior self could have ended up on the floor like that. Jude pays no mind to him then, already pulling out windcharges and glancing behind the corner to attempt knocking some of the assailants in the pit of doom. Unfortunately the windcharges only serve to scare off the enemies, though jude was sure he managed to hit salem in the required spot.
"Just what could have..." jude mumbles under his breath, finally turning his attention back to the man sprawled by his side as the danger is gone for now, only to be met with an even worse enemy - his fuckass past (emphasis on past) partner-lying ass-prick in a state that makes jude's pathetic heart skip a beat. Sharp is somehow still in the same position that jude threw him in (it's okay, take your time to let your one braincell process a single action, the world can wait beautiful princess) sat on the floor against the wall with sprawled legs, shoulders hunched as his arms are extended to their length, eyes boring into the tripwire hook duper in front of him (it can't be that impressive bro).
Jude sucks in a sharp breath, not being able to take his eyes off how defenseless sharp looks, which is lethal paired with how unfairly beautiful the guy manages to be.
"Dude can you lock in?" jude sighs shaking sharp by the shoulder lightly, trying to ignore his heart rate picking up.
Sharp finally stirs at that, turning his head to look slightly up at jude, "you saved me..."
Oh lord jude doesn't like where this is going.
"So we are still partners right!!," sharp exclaims, clutching onto jude's sleeve with an exhilarated expression."
Jude's eye twitches at that as he puts on an awkward smile, finding it hard to deny the guy beaming in front of him. The betrayal is still fresh in mind so he really cant find it in him to have faith again, so jude says just that.
"Oh whyyy, come onn," sharp whines at jude's denial, somehow still not seeing the gravity of his actions to jude's bafflement, "I won't do it again, I promise?" his hold on jude tightening, making the trapper fear he may not be getting out of this predicament until he agrees.
"Ahem, not to interrupt your reconciliation, but we still have a team to hunt down for revenge, no?"
Oh thank lord for parker, god bless his soul. Jude wastes no time using parker's interruption to switch the topic of the conversation and break away from sharp (luckily the guy released his death grip on jude when parker interrupted, otherwise jude would have been sent flying back in his arms as an effect of gravity after moving away so swiftly).
"Right right, any genius plans?"
"Well if brute force doesn't work, we can try what we are best at no?"
"Yes we can," jude smirks at that, his peripheral vision noticing sharp finally lifting himself up from the floor to join their conversation with interest, as he wants to keep the status of having survived the broken bow glitch massacre.
Parker nods at jude, already having cooked up a plan, "I have an idea, but it's quite a risky one especially since we haven't tried testing it on Strength yet to see how it works. I fear that may be our only chance though.
"mhm, well anything with a chance works at this point," jude mumbles lifting a hand to his chin
"Right, so we would need to get somebody without braincells to be bait, as the trap has a likelihood to be a waste," parker finishes, sounding not quite pleased with the idea.
"Oh perfect, sharp is exactly the man for that!" jude grins snapping his fingers, already turning towards sharp to confirm, but before he can he feels a hand gripping his forearm with a painful force and-
"Don't you fucking treat me like that."
Jude stills immediately, feeling his blood run cold, or maybe it's the temperature dropping suddenly. He manages to move his face that last inch to look at sharp only to be met with sharp's more or less blank face, except his eyes are boring holes in jude's own with a furious look.
Jude can't bring himself to move at all, to try and back away from sharp despite feeling his life at mortal danger for he has somehow never felt as terrified before in comparison to looking at sharp now. Jude had gotten so used to sharp's silly antics and playful manner around the trapper that he forgot how sharp is considered a deathly strong pvper.
Jude swallows, feeling a sweat droplet fall down his face, "sorry..." is all he can manage without breaking eye contact.
For a minute the only noise is jude's tripwire duper working and distant villager sounds as sharp measures jude, not betraying a single thought on his face, leaving jude completely in the dark as to what his fate will become in the next few seconds.
Finally he feels the grip slackening as sharp releases his hand, humming in acknowledgement. Jude retracts his hand, unwittingly holding it close to his chest with the other, barely realising how hard his heart is pounding.
"Alright, actually I was thinking we coul..." sharp's next words go over jude's ears, as he backs away slightly to lean against the wall for support, daring to glance at what's left of his wrist and, oh it may be dislocated... Holy shit was sharp pissed to leave that and bruises on top.
Jude's mind can do nothing but contemplate where he messed up to bring that reaction out of his past partner, since usually sharp had no protests against being bait, nor did he get seriously upset when jude called him brainless for that part either. Sure, sharp would attack jude for such comments, but it would always be lighthearted with no real anger behind it, so just what exactly triggered him is unbeknownst to jude.
"-ude? jude?" a thin hand with those signature sharp red nails swinging in front of jude's face finally snaps him out of the spiraling.
"Yeah yeah, I'm listening," jude lightly swats the arm away glancing between sharp and parker, who's still frowning, indicating sharp's outburst didn't fly over his head either, except he had enough control to speak with sharp about the plans like nothing occured.
"Oh yeah? So what do you think about the plan?" sharp's light smirk implying he doesn't buy any of jude's bullshitting.
"I- well- what's the plan again," jude tries, sheepishly giving in quickly knowing he's not bluffing his way out of this one.
Sharp chuckles at that before explaining the new plan, which has a pretty solid chance of working to jude's suprise. All that's left is setting it up.
"Alright sounds good, parker you can go ahead to start, we'll catch up in a second."
"Gotcha, take your time," parker shoots jude a knowing look, indicating he better not mess up.
Jude nods, picking himself up to go through chests for the necessary materials, brainstorming how the hell he will approach sharp, who's currently humming some tune peacefully while looking around like nothing happened.
Seriously, jude would have a much easier time if sharp wasnt literally impossible to read. If he can predict literally everyone's else's actions to a point, then sharp is the mystery of the century, always managing to elude jude's understanding.
Despite all that, jude isn't even considering ignoring the incident just now. He finishes gearing up and makes his way to sharp who's for some reason staring into jude's only mirror with a scrunched up face just barely an inch away from the glass. He locks eyes with jude instantly through the mirror when the trapper enters his vision, stopping just an arm's reach behind sharp.
"Uhh," jude hesitates for a second, folding his arms across his chest whilst trying to find the right words, "I'm actually sorry for what I said back there," he gets out, barely managing to keep eye contact as apologising seriously is a foreign concept.
"It's alright, " sharp backs away a bit from the mirror, finally moving his eyes away from jude's face, "I just," he pauses, rolling his eyes upward with a sigh.
"I just don't like feeling undermined, like I'm of no importance. As if I'm a waste." sharp finishes, glancing back at jude with a weak smile.
"Oh, that's why," jude mumbles to himself, berating his dumbass for not thinking about that, "no yeah that makes sense," he answers, bringing a hand to his forehead with a frown.
"mhmm, it's alright though," sharp grins, turning around to face jude.
"Well, if anything, you're of importance to me," jude can't believe he's actually saying that, just what is sharp doing to him.
Sharp's eyes widen slightly at that before a slight blush coats his face as he stumbles over his words obviously not having expected such an admission from the trapper, "you- wha- are you sick, did you hit your head or something??"
Jude lets out an exasperated sigh at that, already feeling like regretting his words. He's not good at being heartfelt for a reason dude
"Does this mean we are still partners??"
Yeah he definitely doomed himself with this one.
"No?? literally what makes you think that??"
"The fact you actually care? You wouldn't be calling me lf importance to you if you didn't want to still be partners right? rightt??"
"I- okay fine. Fine. But you're not getting my trust back that easily," jude gives in, knowing he's not getting sharp off his neck anyways, and it's not like he's all that opposed to the prospect, sharp is a fun teammate afterall, jude has to admit that.
"As a trapper in this economy I can't afford to trust about anyone so don't expect that."
"That's of no problem, I'll make you see I'm a very trustable person in no time, trust," sharp exclaims with confidence, having gotten his victory over jude.
"yeah yeah in your dreams," jude mumbles with a small smile tugging at his lips.
"Oh but," sharp pauses for a second, smirking at jude, "I have to get my 2 kills as revenge on you first"
"You're actually insufferable," jude groans before shooting sharp a matching grin, "fine I'll give you fair 1v1s, let's see if you can even beat me."
"Oh you're on."
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