Chapter Text
Something is off.
That’s the only thing that is coming into Four’s mind lately. Ever since he and X came around to help with the kitchen at the hotel, he noticed something was strange.
When they first arrived, they always saw Two enthusiastic to host. Sometimes even more energetic than he was hosting before, they never started a challenge late, and they were always on time with everything. It honestly made Four feel envy, but X reaffirmed that every host has their ups and downs..
And now he sees where X is coming from.
Lately, Two has been quite... Strange, all these qualities mentioned before, they were gone. They were now delaying challenges and getting up pretty late, although some contestants were worried, others didn’t really mind, since, to them it meant more free time to chill.
This was getting annoying.
Two STOLE Four’s whole show just to do theirs. So what is going on? Why are they suddenly acting like that? This isn’t the host he knew... No, this isn’t the TWO he knows, and it’s pissing them off.
But he clearly has other things to worry about, such as cooking, baking, and—
‘’Four? Is everything alright?’’ X suddenly started speaking, they were looking at Four. Both of them were washing the dishes together, but Four just unexpectedly stopped, making X worried. ‘’If you are tired, i can clean the rest, you know i have a lot of energy!’’
‘’No, no. There’s no need, i’m not tired or anything like that.’’ Four quickly responded, going back to the washing.
‘’Well.. Then what’s going on in your mind? I for sure know you don’t randomly stop doing an activity for no reason! Unless you just got distracted and i’m overthinking this.’’
‘’Oh nothing is going on, let’s just get this finished.’’
‘’If you say so.’’ Then an awkward silence took over the kitchen. X knew that Four was thinking on something, and Four wanted to ask if X noticed Two acting weird, but it would be weird if he asked about Two himself, so he just got himself into a dilemma.
After a while, they were done with the dishes, but instead of putting them in place, they just stood there. One waiting for the other to talk.
Four realized how stupid this situation was, and just sighed in indignation.
‘’... Ok, i might have something in my mind.’’
‘’I knew it!’’ X turned to Four’s direction ‘’What’s bothering you, Foury?’’
‘’It’s just.. Have you noticed how strange Two’s has been acting?’’
‘’You asking... About Two? Have you finally got over the fact that—’’
‘’SHUT UP! One thing has nothing to do with the other!!’’ Four shouted, making X cover his own ears, seeing their reaction, made them nervous ‘’I’m... Sorry. Didn’t mean to raise up my voice.’’
X took their hands off his ears ‘’Its ok, I guess I shouldn’t have mentioned the topic yet. Anyway, back to your question...’’ he paused for a moment, they were thinking of every single moment he can remember of Two, and with that, they came into a realization ‘’Yea they are acting weird...’’
Four sighed in relief, he was glad he wasn’t the only to notice, even if X just realized that.
‘’Well...’’ X started, looking straight into Four’s eyes ‘’Why don’t you check up on them? You both can even set your differences aside and talk! That would be nice since now we all are kinda living together.’’ They suggested, hoping Four would easily take up on the idea, but they made an annoyed sound.
‘’As if. I can’t stand seeing their face and they probably hate me too, this isn’t happening, X.’’
‘’Huh??? Where did you get the idea they hate you?’’
‘’For what other reason they would steal my show, X?’’
‘’Ok.. I see your point there, but remember! I’m also friends with them, they’ve never said something bad about you to me! In fact, they even complimented you!’’
‘’What.’’ Four genuinely sound confused, like, flabbergasted even. Never they would’ve thought that Two praised them at some point.. Well not on his face but, it is more surprising when someone talks positively about you to someone else. ‘’What did they say about me?’’
‘’They said they were impressed by your hosting skills! And how you managed to deal with 64 competitors at once! They even said that they ought to host like you some day.’’
Now Four was dumbfounded. They swore on their on life that Two hated them, but now it is... Hard to accept. And they even complimented their hosting skills?? This was getting embarrassing to Four.
‘’Hey I know this is a lot to take in but—’’
‘’NEVERMIND I’M GONNA CHECK UP ON THEM.’’ Four immediately interrupted X the moment he heard him talking, he left the kitchen in a rush, like if they were running out of time...
X just watched them go, and if he wasn’t going to see it, he waved at them.
Anyhow, Four slowed down his steps, he felt something off, again. They were close to getting into Two’s room, was that feeling anxiety? No, it was something else. It was that feeling, the one you get when something bad is about to happen or is already happening.
Well if this is a sign to not to go into Two’s room, Four will gladly accept it!
Except they didn’t, this time.
At the same time they felt uneasy, he felt that he needed to go in there, it’s confusing, but that’s what they are feeling. It’s like.. An intuition. Four wasn’t really the type of algebralien to follow their intuition.
But just this once, maybe...
He was in front of Two’s room. He breath in, and breath out. And opened up the door.
The door was unlocked, why was it unlocked? Also, why didn’t Four just knocked the door before entering? Either way he closed the door behind him. They didn’t even check up if Two was in the room or not and...
Why does it smell like in blood in here.
Four came back to their senses, and looked forward.
Two was looking back at them, nervous, anxious, every synonym you could describe for that word.
At first, Four was confused, but then he looked a little down.
‘’Four.. I.. I swear this isn’t what it looks like.’’ Two said, stumbling upon their words.
But what he saw, clearly told him otherwise.
Two’s left arm was full of cuts, some fresh, some old, it doesn’t matter. What matters it’s that Two is the one doing it. On their right hand, they were holding a pair of sharp scissors. Four ran straight up to them and snapped the scissors of their hand and burnt it down in a second. Then they looked straight into Two’s eyes.
The only thing they saw was fear. Not only that, they were trembling, it was like a child knew they did something bad and is expecting a horrible reaction from their parents.
But Four can’t just scream at them, or even call them names and everything.
After all, Four knows how to deal with this. Atleast, he thinks he does.
He went to the bathroom on Two’s room, took a towel, and gently started pressuring the open cuts. Two softly groaned in pain, but remained quiet.
Once the bleeding stopped, Four put the towel aside and stood up
‘’Get up.’’ He demanded, their voice sounding neutral, making Two confused on what is going on, but they hesitantly got up.
Four held their right hand, to make sure they aren’t going to make the other arm worse. And took them to the bathroom.
There, he led them to the sink, turning on the faucet and slowly pouring some water on the scars, now looking closely, he saw how many there were. Some were wider than the others, but not that much.
Four could only sense Two’s shaky breath beside him. He couldn’t help but wonder what even happened with Two for them to get to this point.
After they were done with the cleaning, Four turned off the faucet, and looked at Two
‘’Do you have any bandages here? Or gauzes?’’ Four asked, their voice was so monotone that Two could barely decipher if Four was just doing this for the sake of it or if they were worried with them. Either way, they just pointed at the second drawer under the sink
He opened it, and there was a lot of medication, along side the bandages, Four took one of the bandages rolls, holded Two’s right hand with his free hand, and led both of them to the bed.
Four looked at Two again and without saying any words, Two understood that they were supposed to sit down, so they just did it.
He sat besides them and started bandaging their left arm, carefully.
He could see Two still shaking, but different from the state he found them, they seemed more calm now.
Finishing with the wrapping, they got up to put the bandage back on it’s place, and as soon as they did that, he sat down besides Two again.
Two was nervously fidgeting with their hands, they were trying to not look at Four but it was impossible since they were both so close.
And also, because they’ll probably have to explain everything.