Chapter Text
The first thing Sharpness noticed was that the trap
It's too obvious, which in Jude’s case, usually meant the real danger wasn’t the trap itself but whatever you stopped paying attention to while looking at it.
Standing there at the edge of the forest path with his sword hanging loosely over his shoulder
He found himself staring at the pressure plate placed directly in the center of the dirt trail with an almost offended expression
because there was no way JudeLow genuinely expected anyone with functioning eyesight to fall for something that badly hidden.
The forest around him was quiet in the way dangerous places usually were, where the silence didn’t feel peaceful so much as patient, and the deeper he looked between the trees, the more he could feel it
That strange sense that somebody else had already noticed him long before he arrived.
Sharpness crouched slightly, studying the path ahead while the corner of his mouth slowly lifted into a grin.
“You’re losing your touch.” he called casually into the trees
though his tone carried the kind of confidence that usually irritated people more than outright insults.
Nothing answered him immediately.
Then came the faint click of redstone somewhere above.
Sharpness moved before the arrow even fired.
The projectile sliced through the air and buried itself in the dirt exactly where his head had been a second earlier, and Sharpness barely had time to land properly before laughter , brief, unmistakably amused—drifted through the forest canopy from somewhere out of sight.
“There you are,” Sharpness muttered, brushing dirt from his sleeve while glancing upward through the branches.
JudeLow’s voice answered from somewhere to his left this time, calm enough to be annoying.
“Most people know better than to walk into trap territory alone.”
Sharpness turned toward the sound automatically, but of course Jude wasn’t visible anymore because apparently the man treated basic visibility like a personal weakness.
“Most people,” Sharpness replied, “aren’t me.”
“That’s unfortunately true.”
Sharpness laughed under his breath because there it was—the same dry rhythm they always fell into whenever they crossed paths, like arguing had somehow become more natural between them than actual conversation.
It had been like that for months now.
Sharpness would appear somewhere he absolutely wasn’t supposed to be, Jude would threaten him in increasingly creative ways, and somehow neither of them ever actually left afterward.
The thing about Jude was that most players feared him long before they ever saw him.
Traps usually leave evidence everywhere if you knew what to look for
unnaturally placed blocks, paths that felt too safe, forests that were suspiciously quiet, pressure plates positioned just slightly too openly like invitations designed to mock the intelligence of whoever stepped on them.
Sharpness had learned that faster than most.
Mostly because he triggered nearly every trap on purpose.
Not because he was reckless—though people loved accusing him of that.
but because it was the fastest way to figure out how Jude thought.
And Sharpness liked figuring people out.
Especially JudeLow.
Without another word, Sharpness stepped directly onto the pressure plate.
The explosion came instantly, dirt and smoke erupting beneath his feet as TNT launched upward through the path
but Sharpness reacted almost automatically, throwing himself sideways before the second blast detonated exactly where he would have landed, and the force of it sent loose gravel skidding into the ravine nearby while Sharpness caught himself against a tree with a sharp laugh already breaking from his chest.
“Oh, that’s evil.”
A figure finally emerged from the trees overlooking the cliffside, dark clothing blending into the shadows beneath the branches while Jude stood there with his arms crossed and the kind of calm expression that somehow made everything he did feel ten times more irritating.
“You stepped on it willingly,” Jude pointed out. His bunny ears flicked more than they normally do.
“You made it too obvious,” Sharpness shot back immediately.
“And yet you still triggered it.”
Sharpness pointed accusingly toward the crater behind him.
“Because I knew there was a second trap.”
“Maybe there was a third one too.”
Sharpness froze.
Jude’s expression didn’t change at all. Slowly, carefully, Sharpness took one step backward. Nothing exploded.
Jude looked almost disappointed.
“…You’re the worst,” Sharpness muttered.
“I’ve been told that y'know."
The wind shifted softly through the trees above them, carrying the faint scent of smoke and river water through the forest.
And for a brief moment neither of them spoke because despite how often they argued, there was always this strange familiarity whenever they ended up alone together like this
As if somewhere along the line, fighting each other had become routine enough to feel comfortable.
Sharpness hated realizing that.
Probably because it was true.
Then the sound of voices echoed faintly through the trees. Both of them noticed immediately.
The atmosphere changed at once.
Sharpness straightened slightly while JudeLow’s attention sharpened toward the forest path, and even without speaking, they both understood the situation almost instantly. A team. Hunting.
Again.
“Five players,” Jude said quietly after a second, his gaze focused somewhere beyond the trees. “Maybe six.”
Sharpness glanced sideways at him.
“You counting footsteps now?”
“Maybe"
He stared at him for a moment before shaking his head slowly.
“That is genuinely concerning information.”
The voices grew louder as the group moved closer through the forest, and Sharpness could already hear the confidence in their tone
The kind players always had right before walking directly into one of JudeLow’s setups.
“Spread out.” “Watch the ground.”
“He’s around here somewhere.”
Sharpness almost felt bad for them. Almost.
One player suddenly spotted movement near the ravine and pointed immediately.
“There!”
“Well,” Sharpness sighed dramatically, “there goes the survival rate.”
The group charged forward.
And every single one of them avoided the obvious pressure plate in the center path.
Sharpness winced slightly.
“Oof.” Jude sighed beside him like a disappointed teacher.
“People are adapting.” Then he pressed a hidden button near the tree.
The earth collapsed instantly.
The dirt path gave way beneath the players with a violent crack as hidden pistons retracted the ground underneath them, sending half the group falling directly into a massive concealed pit lined with TNT and cobwebs
While the remaining players panicked backward straight into tripwires hidden between the trees, and the resulting explosions echoed through the forest loudly enough to scatter birds from the canopy overhead.
Sharpness doubled over laughing almost immediately.
“No, okay—that’s actually insane.”
“It was efficient.” "You built more fake traps to distract people from the actual trap.”
“That's what I always do.”
“And then trapped the escape route.”
“Why wouldn't I?”
Sharpness wiped at his eyes dramatically.
“You are a deeply concerning person.”
While he laughed. One surviving player charged directly toward Jude, sword already raised, and Sharpness moved before he consciously thought about it, intercepting the attack cleanly and knocking the player backward with enough force to end the fight almost instantly.
The forest finally went quiet again after that.
Smoke drifted slowly between the trees while bits of redstone and dirt littered the ruined path.
Jude looked down at the damage with mild annoyance.
“You stole my kill now. Huh?”
“You’re welcome,” Sharpness replied immediately. “I had it handled.”
“You were getting rushed.”
“I was baiting them.”
“You say that every single time.”
“Because it keeps working.”
Sharpness rolled his eyes so hard it physically hurt.
Jude crouched near one of the exposed redstone lines, calmly repairing the damaged mechanism while Sharpness leaned nearby against a tree, absentmindedly watching him work because, strangely enough,
Jude always seemed calmer while building traps than during anything else, his movements precise and focused in a way Sharpness had started recognizing without meaning to.
“You know,” Sharpness said eventually, “normal people build houses.”
“Normal people die first.”
“…That’s fair.”
Jude hummed quietly in acknowledgment while reconnecting another repeater. Like it's another saturday for him.
Which it kinda was.
Sharpness watched him for another moment before noticing something else. The faint shadows beneath Jude's eyes.
The slower movements.
The slight delay in reaction speed that most people probably wouldn’t catch.
But Sharpness did.
“Have you slept recently?” he asked suddenly.
Jude paused mid-motion before looking up slowly. “That’s a weird question.”
“You look exhausted.”
“And why would you care?”
Sharpness opened his mouth automatically before stopping halfway through because, honestly, he didn’t actually know why.
Instead, he shrugged casually.
“You’re easier to insult when sleep-deprived.”
Jude narrowed his eyes immediately.
“That was a terrible save.” “Still worked.”
“It absolutely did not.”
But despite the words, a small smile briefly appeared at the corner of Jude's mouth before disappearing again almost immediately.
Sharpness noticed it anyway.
And for some reason...
That felt weirdly rewarding.