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The sharp clang of metal against metal echoed off of the walls of the admittedly too small room as Nom and Katie practiced, 4c sitting to the side with his legs dangling over the side of the counter as he watched them. Nom's brow was furrowed in concentration, and for good reason, because Katie was currently beating his ass and had been for the past couple rounds. There was a wild grin on her face as she swung again and knocked him back, planting her foot right in the middle of his stomach in an instant to send him stumbling and tripping over his own feet.
Once Nom had collapsed to the ground, 4c clapped loudly, a smile spreading across his own face. Katie thrusted her sword into the air and cheered while he hopped down and stood properly again, extending an arm to his fallen friend. "Well, you tried, and-"
In one quick movement, his hand was gripped tightly and he was yanked to the ground, gasping and holding his arms out to brace himself. Katie erupted into laughter behind him as he laid there wheezing, the wind knocked out of him; Nom visibly fought down a grin as he let go and patted his back a bit harder than necessary.
"I was letting her win, obviously." He pushed himself up, picking his sword up again and sheathing it around his waist. Katie tucked away her own weapon as well, resting her hands on her hips as she raised her eyebrows at him.
"Sure you were," she hummed, 4c rolling over to get back up as well. Nom began undoing the straps of his armor, allowing it to fall to the ground with a few soft thumps, readjusting the clothes he'd been wearing underneath.
"I'll show you just how good I really am later." Katie scoffed, beginning to slip off her own armor. 4c stood up and stretched his arms over his head, rolling his eyes; he wondered if the two of them ever stopped bickering. "But we should probably get something to eat for now."
Immediately, 4c's hands darted to the pockets he'd carefully sewn into his clothes, under his chlamys where they were harder to get to. Nom turned to him as he pulled out a gold bracelet, slipping it onto his wrist with a probably very dumb looking smile. "I dunno, I was thinking about selling this, but I think it looks great on me."
He held his wrist up and tilted his head to the side, while Nom merely rolled his eyes. "Right. I'd prefer to eat today, but if you'd rather play dress up then we can do that."
Katie's bright brown eyes glittered as she stared at him, not saying anything, but he ignored it like he always did. He knew the whole stealing thing was a touchy subject for her, however they'd all agreed that it was necessary until they figured out a way to make money more legally. It wasn't like anyone would notice, anyway, when 4c was good at what he did and knew how not to get people suspicious of him.
"We should probably get something to eat, yeah," he sighed dramatically, taking the bracelet off and slipping it back into his pocket. "Especially since you two are gonna start your whole gladiator thing in a few days."
That got Katie to perk up, a smile tugging at her lips again. "Oh, yeah, you said earlier that you found a good place for it?"
"Mhm." He headed out the door, holding it open for the two of them. "I'll show you once we get some food. I think you'll like it, it's a pretty big place and the owner doesn't really care what we do there as long as his property isn't damaged." It was also the reason why he'd entirely run out of all his savings, but that was besides the point. Neither of them needed to worry over that.
"So, what were you thinking you wanted to eat?" 4c asked as he walked down the street, keeping an eye out for anything potentially valuable lying around, even though it was rare for him to find stuff so easily. Katie opened her mouth to reply, but before she could say anything, the world began to fade, only disappearing even faster the more desperately he tried to cling onto it. No, no, why did it have to end so-
He rolled over in bed with a quiet groan, forcing his eyes open. Sunlight was just beginning to light up the world, although that only made it feel even darker, the sun not quite peeking above the horizon just yet. For a few moments, he stared out the window and wondered why he had to wake up so early. Couldn't he have been allowed to dream just a little longer, go through his real life again instead of being trapped here?
But he didn't have much choice in the matter, not when there were resources to collect and people to talk to and meals to hunt down. Pushing himself up, he stumbled out of bed, grabbing his sword off the bedside table and sheathing it around his waist. A bit early to really be doing anything important, but he had nothing better to do anyway.
When he slipped outside, he immediately noticed the sound of footsteps not that far off. He shut his door behind himself and turned toward the sound; if one of the other champions were trying to sneak up on him, they'd probably be a bit quieter, so either they didn't know he was awake or they were here to visit him for some reason.
He got his answer whenever his eyes landed on the person, who slowed to a stop before passing him. "Oh- Good morning."
Abolish's pickaxe rested over his shoulder, the iron glinting a bit in the light. Although 4c wasn't quite ready yet to talk to anyone, if he was being honest, he took a quick breath and smiled anyway. "Morning."
The other man glanced him up and down for a split second and he had a feeling it could tell something was up. Hopefully it wouldn't think he was an earier target for it - they were supposed to be allies, right?
"I was planning on going mining, if you wanted to come," Abolish then said, interrupting his thoughts. He blinked as it turned away. That would be… a good distraction, probably.
"Yeah, sure." Pulling out his own pickaxe, he followed close behind it as it made it continued walking, having to quicken his pace for a few seconds to catch up with it. One of the many downsides to being short, although he did wonder if Abolish would at least somewhat understand, since he certainly wasn't the tallest guy in the world either. Probably something to do with all their various similarities, if he'd been picking up on his hints correctly.
The two of them walked in silence for a while, 4c finding himself beginning to spiral again, thoughts straying back to his dream for hardly half an hour ago. He'd give anything to be back there again, take it all back and figure out some other way to fix things so the three of them could be happy and fine. He wondered how everything had gone after his death. Did they mourn him, or did Katie really hate him the whole time, or were both of them also executed for helping him? He would never be able to forgive himself - even less so than he already did - if they were punished that harshly for his actions.
There must've been some expression on his face, because when they stepped into the cave, Abolish spoke up. "Something on your mind, 4cvit?"
"Oh, uh-" He paused, hands shaking for a split second where he held his pickaxe before he managed to calm himself down again, putting a smile back on his face. "It's nothing, just a dream I had last night. Not like- Not anything… supernatural, just memories."
Abolish hummed, casting him a quick glance with some unfamiliar emotion in his gaze, before turning to begin mining some iron. "Yeah? Do you… want to talk about it?"
Did he? That was a lot more difficult of a question than it sounded, given that they still sort of barely knew each other and revealing something so person could be a huge risk. Not to mention that Abolish had hardly revealed anything about itself, which was understandable but not much of a reassurance.
"I don't know," he said finally, keeping Abolish at the edge of his vision as he walked up to a vein of coal. "I mean, it's not that… important, really. Just a random memory from when I was alive. Not even that special of a moment."
It was… sort of a lie. Every moment with his best friends felt special to him now that they were gone - or, well, now that he was gone. His throat felt tight and he could hardly breathe just thinking about them. They were gone and it was all his fault because he'd been an idiot and fucked everything up for them. There were a million different things he could've done, so many options and choices, and yet he'd picked the wrong ones at every single turn until one of them had been forced to execute him herself in front of everyone.
And he didn't even know if she'd wanted to or not. Did he deserve for her to kill him? He sure felt like it.
But Abolish didn't say anything, merely humming a bit once he'd finished speaking. He couldn't quite tell if it was encouraging him to continue or not, but for reasons entirely unknown to himself, more words tumbled from him anyway.
"When I was alive, I uh- I only really had two friends." A quiet laugh slipped out of him, taking a moment to lean his forearm against the rock, trying to gather up his composure even as saying anything about this felt like he was being stabbed with each word. "As sad as that sounds. But they were really good friends, and we'd known each other since we were kids, so we were… close."
He paused to push himself up again, and Abolish took the opportunity to speak up himself. "I mean… I didn't have that many friends, either. Not real friends."
His gaze flicked over to him, running a hand through his hair for a few long moments as he stared. He'd of course guessed that Abolish didn't have too many friends, given how awkward and solitary he was, constantly telling everyone around him that he didn't really care about or like anyone here. He was… odd. Not in a bad way, rather in a very fascinating way, and maybe that was part of the reason 4c was still talking to him.
But Abolish presumably didn't know 4c had already picked up on that. It was almost like a regular conversation, with both of them sharing things about themselves, if he just ignored everything and quit overthinking every little detail. Was Abolish doing the same thing? Judging from the way it stared at everyone, calculating every single word that was said to it, it at least usually did.
"Yeah," he breathed at last, turning away and heading deeper into the cave. "It's, uh- Not great with many people you can trust, yeah?" A bitter laugh left him, shocking himself, words falling from his lips without his permission. "Not that I really could trust them, in the end, apparently."
Abolish fell into step alongside him, and his gaze flicked up to gauge its reaction. Had he said too much? He noted that its head was turned away from him now, the smile having disappeared from its face, and with a jolt of shock he caught the glint of tears in its eyes when they passed close to a pool of lava. There was no way it was crying; he must be imagining things, going crazy and hallucinating from overanalyzing too much.
Then, bitterly, Abolish sighed, "Yeah, I definitely get that." One of his hands slid back and touched the edge of the deep scar on his back, before falling back to his side.
"Did a… friend, do that to you?" 4c asked slowly, eyeing the scar for a few moments before realizing he probably looked incredibly rude and looking away. Abolish's head tilted to the side slightly, and when he blinked, the tears were gone from his eyes, expression returning to his normal resting pissed off face.
"Did one of your friends kill you?" he responded, which was a good enough answer for 4c. Humming a bit, his gaze flicked around the cave, before spotting the barely familiar glitter of cyan not too far off.
"Diamonds," he called out as he hurried over, careful to avoid the burning magma as he climbed up the deep crimson rocks, Abolish right on his heels. Their conversation replayed in his mind, but it wasn't in the usual obsessive way where he felt the tightness of anxiety and embarrassment in his chest. He didn't feel like he'd messed up horribly - instead, he felt… nice. Like they were closer now, even if he doubted they were.
Were they?
He glanced back at Abolish as he swung his pickaxe. It'd spotted some more iron right next to the diamonds and was focused on working away at that, not sparing him a single look as its brow furrowed in concentration. Swallowing hard, he tore his gaze away, distracting himself by stuffing diamonds in his bag. Maybe he felt closer to Abolish, at least, in ways that he… did not want to think about.
Ways that weren't important. He was supposed to be focused on winning, not… that. Especially when he didn't even like guys, he was pretty sure, and Abolish was most definitely a guy, a guy in the same way he was in fact. Maybe he just felt a connection to him because of that, in the same way he'd just felt connected to Nom with no other feelings there.
The thought of Nom nearly made him drop his pickaxe, but he gathered his composure again and did his best to brush off the feelings, tucking them away in the far reaches of his mind where he wouldn't need to dwell on them. With a glance at Abolish, their conversation a few minutes ago bubbled back up and butterflies fluttered in his stomach despite all his protests - but at least he felt better.
What everyone else didn't know couldn't hurt them. And so he began scaling down the rocks again, only having a little bit of a heart attack when their shoulders brushed together as they reached the ground. That was normal. Probably.