Trust Life

Trust Life
Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/41212521.
Rating: Mature
Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Category: M/M, Multi
Fandom: 3rd Life | Last Life SMP Series
Relationship: Jimmy | Solidarity/Scott | Smajor1995 | Dangthatsalongname, Jimmy |
Solidarity/TangoTek, Scott Major | Smajor1995/TangoTek, John Booko
| BdoubleO100/impulseSV, Charles | Grian/Ryan |
GoodTimesWithScar, Charles | Grian/Anthony Viviano | Bigbst4tz2,
Past impulseSV/Kris | ZedaphPlays/TangoTek, Joel |
SmallishBeans/Lizzie | LDShadowLady (Video Blogging RPF), Past
Ethoslab/Joel | SmallishBeans, Martyn Littlewood/Rendog, Jimmy |
Solidarity/Scott Major | Smajor1995/TangoTek
Character: Scott Major | Smajor1995, TangoTek (Video Blogging RPF), Jimmy |
Solidarity, Charles | Grian, Ryan | GoodTimesWithScar, Anthony
Viviano | Bigbst4tz2, ZombieCleo (Video Blogging RPF), John Booko |
BdoubleO100, EthosLab (Video Blogging RPF), impulseSV (Video
Blogging RPF), Martyn Littlewood | InTheLittleWood, Rendog (Video
Blogging RPF), Lizzie | LDShadowLady (Video Blogging RPF), Joel |
SmallishBeans, Pearl | PearlescentMoon
Additional Tags: Post-Double Life SMP, Video Game Mechanics, Mutual Pining,
Complicated Relationships, Angst, Scott | Smajor1995 |
Dangthatsalongname Has Ice Powers, Blaze Hybrid TangoTek (Video
Blogging RPF), Canary Hybrid Jimmy | Solidarity, Winged Charles |
Grian, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, no beta we die like jimmy,
Enemies to Lovers, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Arson, Breakups,
Slow Burn, Mild Sexual Content, Swearing, Implied/Referenced
Cheating, Eventual Smut, Rating May Change, Insomnia, Eventual
Flower Ranchers, Angst with a Happy Ending
Language: English
Stats: Published: 2022-08-22 Updated: 2023-09-16 Words: 278,304 Chapters:
58/?
Trust Life
by Capritarius
Summary
The last thing Scott remembers seeing was Pearl’s look of shock and horror.
The last thing Scott remembers thinking, was how fun it’ll be to finally get his memories
back and talk endlessly with his friends about how well their game went.
Scott’s health reached zero.
His world went dark.

He opened his eyes.
Or, in order to keep things interesting and unpredictable during the traffic games, Grian
thought it’d be a good idea to have the memories of everyone’s past relationships erased
before the start of each session.
So far, every previous session has been a blast. But things become complicated at the end
of double life when Scott realizes that his boyfriend in the real world went out and got a
whole other boyfriend during the game. All while having no memory of him.
The next upcoming life game is sure to be an awkward one…
Notes
Full disclaimer: This is more of a fun project for me than anything serious and I’ll be
posting chapters at my leisure. Also, this is my first published fic on here so if anything
seems scuffed format-wise then my apologies in advance. I’m still learning. That being
said, hope y’all enjoy! Comments and kudos are always appreciated!
Waking Up
Chapter Notes
Edit: Rating is also probably gonna go up to E eventually. Just a heads up
The last thing Scott remembers before blowing himself up was the look of shock and horror
displayed on Pearl’s face.
She seemed as though she hadn’t been expecting this. Which, if Scott’s being honest, he hadn’t
either.
But here they were. The last surviving partners. He’d be lying if he’d said things haven’t been
rough for them for nearly the entire duration of the game. But in this moment, right now, Scott
couldn’t help but feel as though he’d been a little too harsh on Pearl.
But it was no matter. He’d forgiven her a short while ago. And with any hope, she’d be able to
forgive him too. Because at the end of the day, this was all still just a game.
Scott got the feeling that him and Pearl were probably close friends outside of this whole thing
anyway. They were all friends on some level. He knew that much at least.
That was why they weren’t allowed to remember anything beyond that. Beyond the fact that they
were all in this world—which was very much a game—of their own free will. Otherwise, what fun
would that be? Everyone would just team up with the people they were with from previous
sessions, or those who they were close with on their home server.
The game would become predictable. And the only thing that’s sure to make a game fun
(according to Grian) was to make it as unpredictable as possible.
But with the memories of their past relationships erased, Scott couldn’t help but wonder who he
might have been close with before the start of all this. He figured he likely had some ties to Pearl—
other then the obvious soulmate one. They couldn’t have just been acquaintances. No way. He felt
too comfortable around her, conversation having come easily between the both of them despite the
subject of it always seeming to be snarky jabs or insults.
Even after everything that’s happened between them, he couldn’t say he didn’t have fun.
Surely, Pearl did as well.
In fact, pretty much everyone seemed to have been enjoying themselves. Even those who weren’t
able to stick around for that long.
That one handsome player in particular—Jimmy, his name was—seemed to be having the time of
his life from what Scott had seen. Him and his soulmate may have met under unfortunate
circumstances, but from that moment on they had become inseparable, constantly aiding and
bettering each other, while at the same time, becoming infamously known for being one of the
most chaotic duos on the server.
Some parts of Scott envied their bond. Tango and Jimmy seemed to be a match made in heaven,
while his and Pearl’s relationship was more likely constructed in the depths of the nether.
The rate at which the happy couple went from teammates to friends to lovers was exceedingly fast.
No one on the server doubted for a second that those two weren’t already some kind of item back
home. Of course, no one could know for certain until the game ended and they all got their
memories back. But such a theory only served to encourage more people to start placing their bets.
That being said, most of the other pairings did seem to have something going on between them in
some form or another.
Scar and Grian, for example, developed a sort of relationship that bordered on flirtatious but was
also plenty friendly.
Grian’s “secret” relationship with BigB however, showed no such innuendos. (Source: several
players had caught them making out behind BigB’s base).
According to what Scott had heard through the grape vine, Scar had reacted quite angrily upon
finding out about these secret meetups. Which was a tad hard for Scott to believe since the only
thing he’s ever seen Scar get angry over was an on-fire Jellie panda sanctuary.
On another end, relationships like the one that Impulse and Bdubs shared seemed to mirror that of
Tango and Jimmy’s. Whereas, it was often questioned if the two had been close in a similar
manner before the start of the game due to how perfect they were for each other. Those two
especially, were quite noticeably loud about how in love they were. Scott wondered if he found
their exclamations annoying at times more so because of how obnoxious they sounded or because
of how envious it made him to have yet another perfect relationship forced in his face.
It was experiences like these that often got Scott thinking long and hard during his time in the
game. Was there someone who loved him waiting for him back home? Were they possibly already
in the game with him? If so, then who?
Certainly not Pearl, for obvious reasons. Nor any of the other girls. Joel seemed a likely candidate
through process of elimination. They hadn’t talked very much, but Scott did have a gut feeling that
they’d lived on the same home server outside of the game at one point.
If not Joel then perhaps Scar? Scott knew he was at least attracted to him physically. But then, so
was the rest of the server. No one could peel their eyes away from those pecs. They were all only
human.
Perhaps he had no one waiting form him then. The thought scared him. It’s not like they’d
forgotten their personalities along with their pasts, or who they were in general. Scott knew he was
an open person, flirtatious and fairly extroverted. Maybe he was giving himself too much credit,
but he would be surprised if he ended up being single back on his home server.
It really was a peculiar thing, wasn’t it? Having the memories of any and all of their past
relationships wiped nearly clean, safe for that instinctive feeling that’s hard to be rid of completely.
And of course, the knowledge that they were in a game where death wasn’t permanent, nor was it
horribly painful. Even Grian wasn’t nearly unhinged enough to consider that situation any fun.
He ought to hand it to Grian for developing such a complicated mechanic. Memory erasing worlds,
while not unheard of, were still a rare and overall tricky thing to implement into a private server.
The one made for these games however, was not only capable of temporarily deleting the
memories of each person existing within the confines of its border, but could also filter out specific
concepts or ideas that the players were meant to keep. Such as why they were here and what they
were meant to be doing.
That was all there was to it, really. As long as that one memory remained intact—the one that let
the players know that this was all a harmless game—all could enjoy the events of the next week or
so exactly as such. Knowing that no matter what they did here, who they killed, antagonized, or
befriended, they’d all be able to have a good laugh about it once the game was over, just as Scott
was sure must have been the case for all previous games.
Indeed, it was safe to assume that they all must have been on good terms by the end of each
session. Otherwise, why would they keep organizing these things every few months?
Yeah, that was most certainly the case with each round. They’d always still be friends afterwards.
The last thing Scott remembers seeing was Pearl’s look of shock and horror.
The last thing he remembers thinking, was how fun it’ll be to finally get his memories back and
talk endlessly with his friends about how well their game went.
Scott’s health reached zero.
His world went dark.
He opened his eyes.

Answers
Chapter Summary
The players get their memories back. Drama ensues.
Oh. Oh god—
The memories hadn’t come flooding back, at least, not in an overwhelming sense. There was no
feeling of emptiness, and then a sudden rush of information that overcrowded his brain to the point
of incomprehensibility.
Scott just—didn’t know things in one moment, and then knew everything the next. As though the
gaps in his mind had been filled quickly and seamlessly by an element as form-fitting and all-
encompassing as water.
That didn’t make it any easier.
Scott first took note of his surroundings and the environment he was in. They were all outside, it
was midday and everyone from the game had spawned in in a circular formation around a
campfire. The campsite looked nice. There were some tables with cake and food along with a few
decorations that had been put in place.
Thats right, he remembered now. At the end of every session all players were automatically
teleported to a new world for an after party held to celebrate the victor. Scott had one thrown
together for him last session. As did Grian after the first one. It was their own little tradition. Grian
would always throw together a simple vanilla world for the occasion.
But what the world was mainly for was to serve as a temporary safe space that allowed for
everyone to meet up after the games and ensure that they were all doing okay and recovering
properly before being sent back home for good. Having all of one’s memories return right after
they’ve just experienced death can be incredibly disorienting, after all.
At least, that’s what it was suppose to be for.

This time, it wasn’t a place for celebration, but more so for conflict.
The second thing Scott noticed was everyone’s silent noises of confusion for about two seconds
before the entire area was disrupted by the sounds of arguments and yelling.
On one end of the circle, Scar and Grian were locked in an argument regarding everything that
went down with him and Bigb. Scott turned his head, quickly noticing Bigb running up to join
them, appearing to have immediately taken Grian’s side in the fight only for Grian to look back at
him with heartbroken eyes while trying to break it to him gently that he’d made a mistake during
this game and couldn’t be with him anymore.
Scott knew him and Scar had been going steady since Third Life after they’d partnered up with
each other and established a bond that Scott had previously thought to be unbreakable. Turns out,
all it took for that tie to be severed was amnesia and a handsome ‘ stranger’ . Yikes.
To Scott’s left, Joel had shrunken down into the fetal position, sobbing into his hands and
whispering quiet apologies to seemingly no one. Scott noticed Etho trying to approach him, but
Joel only turned away. Anyone who could manage to put the pieces together with that display
would probably realize that Joel had likely gotten a bit too friendly with Etho during the game and
—seeing as he was married outside of the game—was now in a very ugly position. Scott cringed.
He did not envy him.
On another end, Scott saw Martyn run over to Ren. Same as everyone else, the two were trying to
sort out what their currently established relationship was and how it fared against all of the new
information they’d just received. Martyn grabbed Ren by the shoulders, giving him a worried,
almost sad look as he fired off a dozen questions at once. All while Ren tried to reassure him that
nothing too serious had happened between him and Bigb. The blonde didn’t look as though he was
going to be thoroughly convinced anytime soon.
It was then that Scott’s attention was ripped away, ears ringing at the sound of a very familiar
voice.
Jimmy.
He turned his head to see him, Tango, Bdubs and Impulse trying to sort something out in a very
agressive manner.
Scott didn’t bother to listen. He was too busy reflecting on every little thing he’d seen Tango and
Jimmy do together during the entirety of the game. He’d seen them hold each other comfortably at
times when they thought no one was paying attention. Seen them share longing glances and quick
kisses. They were always so affectionate around others without a care in the world. Scott’s blood
began boiling. If that’s what they did in public then what the hell were they doing in private?
His head started to race, face going red as his entire body tensed up and he began making his way
over to them.
Turns out he was right. He did have someone he belonged to back home. Oh god did he have
someone.
Jimmy had been his. They’d been together for nearly all of a year now. At each other’s sides since
the moment Jimmy jokingly handed him a flower, which spiraled into so, so much more.
And now, because of this game, this stupid code that rid all players of any memory of their
previous relationships, Jimmy hadn’t remembered a single moment of any of that.
And neither did he.
Christ . He was perfectly content with sitting by as Jimmy became entranced with another man.
Watched on as their bond became stronger. Did absolutely nothing as they’d steal kisses and hold
hands.
The canary hybrid only then turned his head to Scott, face going white as he saw him marching
forward.
Scott looked down.
They were still holding hands.
He had no care for whatever the hell Tango and Impulse were fighting over. It clearly wasn’t
important. He cut right in between the two pairs and turned to face Tango, who bore a look of first
surprise, and then dread.
“Uh- Scott- I think-“
Scott was about ready to punch him.
“Scott,” Jimmy bud in. “I think we should talk about this.”
Scott turned to look at Jimmy, his eyes softening just a bit.
“Calmly.” Jimmy finished.
Scott wasn’t particularly in the mood for calm but he did his best. Maybe Jimmy had a point. The
last thing they needed was another outburst to add to the rest of them. Despite this, he was still
intent on making Tango well aware of just how much he despised him.
Scott grit his teeth.
“There’s nothing to discuss.” He seethed. He turned his head to face Tango. “Get the hell away
from my boyfriend.”
A few wisps of fire flicked momentarily through the blaze hybrid’s hair. Scott knew that meant he
was angry but was likely trying to keep his emotions in check. Whether that was for Jimmy’s sake
or his own, Scott didn’t care. He was still itching to make this asshole pay.
“What happens if I say no?” Tango asked, face now twisting into a slight grimace.
Scott looked back down. Tango’s grip on Jimmy’s hand had tightened, his overall posture taking
that of a defensive stance.
That does it.
Scott could feel bits of frost creeping up random parts of his body. During the game, he’d had no
memory of ever having ice powers, let alone how to use them. But now, he felt confident enough to
go as far as to weaponize them once more if it meant getting Tango to back the hell off.
As for Tango, his eyes began glowing a brighter shade of red, hair now flickering even more wildly
with untamed wisps of fire. The area had gone quiet and everyone now had their eyes trained on
the three of them. Scott couldn’t care less. He could only pay attention to the smell of smoke that
now coated his sense of smell. And how eager Tango looked for a fight.
Had the campfire they were standing next to suddenly grown bigger? He hadn’t noticed.
Jimmy suddenly stepped back into his line of sight, a worried look on his face.
He put a hand to Scott’s shoulder, his other one still clinging on to Tango’s.
“No Scott, we’re not doing this here. Okay?” Jimmy tried to reason with him once more. Scott was
having none of it.
“We just need to have a calm talk about this-“
“I’m not having this conversation with him here.” Scott snapped. He wasn’t about to budge on this
one. Some small part of him knew that Tango was just as much of a victim in this as Jimmy was.
He couldn’t have known that Jimmy was already spoken for back on his home server. Neither of
them could.
But what Tango was doing now was crossing a line. He’d gotten his memories back. He was now
actively aware that he was budding directly into another person’s relationship. The thought of it
only made Scott angrier. Sure, he might have gotten somewhat attached to Jimmy during his time
there, but was this asshole really ready to break up their year long commitment just to continue on
with a budding romance that’s lasted just over a week and probably won’t last the next month??
It was pure selfishness. At least, Scott saw it as such. And he wasn’t about to let Tango believe that
he was anything more to Jimmy now than a hinderance.
Scott took a deep breath. Tango wasn’t worth the energy. He moved to grab Jimmy by his
remaining hand, pulling him forward with an eager tug.
“Come on. Let’s just go home and we can talk about this then.” Scott urged his unwilling
boyfriend.
He felt resistance on the other end and looked up to give Tango a burning glare. Looks like he
wasn’t the only one not budging on this.
“You want to lose your fucking arm??” The tension between them continued to build. “Let. Go. Of.
Him. ” Scott said ruthlessly.
“It’s not me who’s hanging on.” Tango answered back. Scott could have sworn he somehow heard
a smirk in his voice.
He turned his gaze back down. Jimmy now had a death grip on Tango’s wrist.
“Jimmy?” Scott’s thoughts came to a halt, anxiety rising. This couldn’t be happening. Jimmy
couldn’t seriously be debating on who to stay with, could he? This answer should be as clear as day
for him.
“I think we should have this conversation right here, right now.” Jimmy demanded sternly. But all
the while, still refusing to make eye contact with his partner.
He continued.
“Scott, I know things are very confusing right now-“
He was cut off. “Don’t talk to me like I’m some kid.” Scott exclaimed, voice now bordering on a
yell. “And don’t act like you aren’t just as confused. You think after all this time I can’t tell when
you’re scared? You have that damn look on your face like you know something bad is about to
happen. So spit it out. Why can’t we just leave, Jimmy??”
Jimmy could only stare at the ground, He looked to be on the verge of tears but was trying his best
to keep it together.
“Tell me why we can’t just forget about all this and move on?” Scott was nearly pleading with him
now. Jimmy had always been his weakness. They both knew this.
He needed a different approach. He would have done anything at this point just to convince
himself that what he suspected was anything but true.
“I know this wasn’t your fault.” He started calmly. “You know I don’t blame you for any of this,
right? I may get jealous easily but even I can see that this was just a flaw of the game. Something
that none of us thought would happen— could happen—and that all of us overlooked.”
“Scott…”
He wasn’t giving up just yet.
“So let’s just leave. Lets go back to empires and never do this again.” Scott wished more than
anything that they could just do that. That it would be that simple.
“You know I can’t do that.” Jimmy replied.
Scott’s heart sunk.
“Why not??” He yelled, voice shaking as he did.
“…I- I love him too much for that...” Jimmy finally confessed.
His world shattered.
“Jimmy-“ Tango tried to bud back in, but was cut off once more.
“No…” Scott trembled. He gripped Jimmy’s hand even tighter.
“What-?” Jimmy started.

“No, You don’t.”
Now Scott was the one trying to hold back tears. His frost was past his fingers at this point, slowly
making its way up his boyfriend’s hand.
“You can’t love him. You’ve only known him a week. You can’t just fall that deeply for someone
in such a short span of time.”
Scott had tried to reason with Jimmy in every other way he could think of. Now, all he could think
to do was to bring down his walls and speak his mind. And to him, this was the truth. Scott simply
could not fathom how Jimmy could possibly be putting everything they’d been through together on
the line for some guy he’d only just started talking to. He needed Jimmy to know this. Needed to
convince him that this whole argument was simply pointless-
“But… I did with you .” Jimmy spoke quietly. He was now looking directly at him, voice sounding
all too sincere for Scott to handle.
He couldn’t take this anymore. Was anything he had with Jimmy even real? Could Scott have just
been replaced with any other player during that very first game? Did Jimmy only cling to him
simply because he was the first person to walk by??
If all it took for Jimmy was a week to become smitten for both Tango and himself, then who’s to
say he really was in love with him to begin with?
Scott still had his verbal filter off. He regretted his next words as soon as they left his mouth.
“Then you weren’t in love, Jimmy. You were delusional.”
The look on the other’s face was like a stab to the heart. But Scott refused to falter.
“Scott, don’t do this-“ Jimmy’s tears were now pricking at the corners of his eyes.
“Choose.” Scott demanded coldly.

“What-?”
“Make a choice right now.”
“Scott, you’re not thinking straight-“ Tango took a step closer, hovering over Jimmy as if ready to
protect him at a moment’s notice.
Scott cut him off once more.
“You don’t get to talk here.” He hissed.
He turned back to Jimmy.
“Choose. Either leave with me now, your partner of one year, or stick with the man you’ve known
for just over a week and see how long he decides to hang around for.”
Jimmy took a long pause. He didn’t appear to be contemplating anything, only delaying the
inevitable.
“I can’t.” He sobbed, now full on crying.
Tango leaned in closer to comfort him. And in that instance, Scott no longer cared about how close
they were.
All he could feel was betrayal and emptiness. There was no convincing Jimmy of anything. He
wasn’t going to let Tango go for any reason.
“Seems like you’ve made your decision then.” Scott said indifferently.
He gave Tango one final look. This time, not full of hate or anger, but of deadness and finality.
“I hope you’re pleased with yourself.”
Scott let go, turned heel and began walking away.
“Scott, please- I don’t want to loose anyone here-“
Jimmy called out to him desperately. But he was already past the circle of bystanders, pulling out
his communicator from his back pocket.
“Scott please, don’t leave me-“
If anything else was said after that, it fell on deaf ears.
Scott pressed the logout button with his thumb.
Smajor1995 left the game

Showtime
Chapter Summary
It’s been six months since Double Life and Scott still hates himself.
Scott groaned tiredly upon hearing his alarm. He rolled over, bed creaking as he went to shut it off.
He then rolled back into place and stared at the ceiling above him, trying to give himself a few
more moments of peace before he would eventually have to get up. He lied there, letting his racing
thoughts slowly manifest into something coherent.
The day of reckoning was finally here. He had been dreading today. It was, after all, the morning
of which the new Life game was set to begin.
Scott had barely been able to rest his eyes last night, the side effects of this made painfully clear as
he peeled the blanket off and got up to go make some tea, bones creaking and room spinning with
every step he took. It had always been hard for him to sleep whenever he was anxious or stressed
about something. And the stress had only been getting worse as the game’s start date approached.
He dragged his feet to the kitchen and set the kettle to boil while, at the same time, getting started
on making a simple two egg breakfast. The lack of sleep combined with his anxious stomach made
it difficult to have an appetite for anything. But he knew he’d be paying the price for it later if he
went into the game with low hunger.
Scott wasn’t so much nervous about today as he was simply fed up. He’d thought he’d been done
being a participant in the Life games for good after the clusterfuck that was meant to be an after
party for the previous game had ended so terribly.
There were only three reasons as to why he’d decided to come back for this session. And their
names were Cleo, Pearl, and Grian.
He knew that Cleo and Pearl had loved the games from the very start. Both would have been
heartbroken had Grian decided to discontinue them completely. Scott had a good feeling that this
reason had played a part in Grian’s choice to try and organize another session as well. While
Double Life had ended disastrously for many parties, the fun that was had during it had still
managed to outweigh the problems it may have created for some players.
Cleo had been the first to bring the subject up with Scott. She hadn’t pressured him in any way.
Simply put, she told him to just “think about it”. And who was he to tell his soulmate by choice
no?
But even so, Cleo’s input wasn’t enough to sway him. At least, not on its own.
After the overwhelming feeling of heartbreak passed and the dust had settled, Scott began to
realize that Pearl had never really gotten to celebrate her victory. Everyone was too wrapped up in
untangling the drama created by Double Life’s memory loss mechanics that no one had been in the
mood for celebrating at all.
He’d felt sorry for Pearl. Sorry that she got no recognition even after fighting so hard to win. Sorry
that he’d been one of—if not the biggest— contributing factors to the fighting that went on during
the after party.
Pearl had seemed so unhappy during the first few days that followed. Every time Scott tried to talk
to her, she always seemed like she was struggling to smile and stay upbeat. Scott knew his friend
well. And from what he could put together, Pearl had likely felt upset over not getting her victory
party after the game, but felt as though she wasn’t permitted to be unhappy about it since so many
other arguably worse problems were going on at the same time.
Scott couldn’t bear to see her like that. Especially not after she had been the main person to help
comfort him after his breakup.
Pearl’s victory wouldn’t be for nothing. Not if he had anything to say about it.
Scott had been so deep in thought that he hadn’t noticed his eggs were starting to burn. He quickly
turned the stove off and slid them off the pan and onto a piece of toast. He poured his tea and sat
down, still mulling over everything as he ate.
The third and final thing that convinced Scott to rejoin was more material than emotional. It was
yet another tradition of the game that the group had all kept up since the very beginning.
This tradition, was the betting pool.
Scott recalled the events of the last game.

“Whoever had Scar as the last green life just made MONEY-“
It was Martyn. Martyn had made money.
Scott, on the other hand, had lost money. Or perhaps more accurately put, he had owed favors.
The betting pool wasn’t a pool per say—at least not in a traditional gambling sense. In simple
terms, it was a series of wagers made that allowed for each player partaking in the following
session to place bets on a multitude of outcomes. Some outcomes included who would be the last
green life, who would be the first red life, who would be the first to get out for good (spoiler:
everyone wagered on Jimmy), and of course, the most betted on outcome of all, who would be the
last man standing.
As with all forms of gambling, there were some rules in place to organize how the betting pool
functioned. To summarize, every player was well aware that they would not be able to remember
what bets they made before the game began. They would however, be able to remember that there
was a betting pool in place. No harm in keeping that concept in the back of everyone’s mind. Only
served as more motivation for them to win.
On that subject, players were allowed to—and often did— bet for themselves. But for obvious
reasons, were prohibited from betting against themselves. Can’t have anyone throwing themselves
off a cliff right as the game starts based on a hunch that they’d bet they’d be the first yellow life.
Scott personally didn’t think that’d be worth the potential diamonds. But he had a feeling that Pearl
—crazy as she was—might have tried to place that bet had it been allowed.
Regarding the earnings however, there was nothing in the rules that stated that they had to be
diamonds. Some people used these, yes, but a good chunk of players had also worked together to
put a system in place that allowed people to gamble with favors instead, seeing as there would be
no inflation on those between servers in the way that there would have been for mined valuables.
Scott, had been one of these people—as he did not want to develop a habit of gambling large sums
and figured this was less likely to happen if what he was gambling was intangible.
He’d already owed a couple of favors due to an unlucky streak during the first game. But to that
extent, Scott had also gained a bunch after he’d won the second game.
But after his most recently played session, he’d not only ended up back in the hole, but had now
owed a favor to Grian of all people after having bet that one of Scar’s deaths during the game
would be to fall damage.
And Grian had waited until just last month to cash that favor in.
Scott finished his meal. He got up to place his dishes in the sink and go get dressed, the
conversation he had with Grian during the last MCC replaying itself in his head for the millionth
time.
“Join in on this next game.” Grian had asked.
“Uh, how about no?”
“Dude, you owe me.”
“I owe you like, six hours of my time. Not a full week’s worth!”
Scott had thought his decision was absolute. Until—
“We won’t be deleting any memories this time. You’ll remember everything.”
He needed a solid two days to think it over. But after everything else that had been weighing on his
conscience regarding Cleo and Pearl, Grian’s meddling had inevitably served as the final nail in the
coffin.
Scott pulled on a clean shirt and threw on his usual blue top over that. He wasn’t wearing his
empires outfit today. Whatever clothes he’s wearing once he spawns in to the Life game will be
what he’s stuck with. And Scott would very much prefer to be in something he’s more familiar
with.
He contemplated bringing a set of yellow and red clothes to change into for when he eventually
lost a life. But in the end, decided against it. It’s not as though he was particularly enthusiastic
about participating in the game this time. Instead, he settled on storing an extra set of his regular
outfit in his inventory. If and when he did die, his clothes and body would just reset to being
perfectly clean after he respawned anyway.
He had no idea what he was in for. Pretty much no players did, safe for Grian and whoever he may
have decided to tell. Since they were going to be keeping their memories however, it was agreed
amongst all the participants in advance that in an event where the structure of the game involved
two or more players having their health/lifeline tied to another player, such as in Double Life, any
wagers a person might have placed against someone who they were unaware was going to be their
their own partner would be rendered null and void.
It was a shaky arrangement. But it worked.
Scott checked the time on the kitchen clock.
7:50am.
They were suppose to start at 8am sharp, just as they always did.
Scott did a once over on his base, going through his own mental checklist. Stove was off, lights
were off, animals had enough food to last three weeks, he’d payed Fwip to water his flowers while
he was gone…
Everything seemed in order. By the time he had gone over it all, it was 7:55am.
His gut sank. These Life games were suppose to be fun. They had been fun. But now, they just
served as a reminder of what he’d lost. Scott already dreaded having to compete once more.
But above all else, what he dreaded the most was the likely outcome in which he would have to see
Jimmy and Tango together again.
That thought alone almost made him wish they were getting their memories wiped before the start
of the game, despite literally every other player agreeing unanimously that pulling that trick again
after everything that went down last session would be just about the stupidest idea ever.
Its not as though he hadn’t been talking to Jimmy at all these past months. They were both still
residing on the same server after all. But every forced encounter had either left Scott, at best—
feeling awkward and slightly uncomfortable, and at worst—fighting to hold back tears as he
struggled to get out a single sentence without his voice shaking.
He had expected him and Tango’s newly formed relationship to end as soon as it began. It was,
after all, built on the foundation of amnesia and heartbreak. But as the months dragged on, Scott
began realizing with dread that his prediction could not have been farther from the truth.
Jimmy would head off to visit Tango on Hermitcraft almost every day. Key word: ‘almost’ being
used not because he’d skip days, but because Tango would sometimes come to him instead.
Scott would find himself going about his daily routine, perhaps easing into the comfort of a simple
build when, unexpectedly, his comm would buzz in his pocket and he’d look at it and start
seething.
Tango joined the game
And just like that, the rest of his day would be instantly ruined.
The worst times were when it was late into the night and for whatever reason—as had been
happening with him more often since the end of Double Life—Scott would be restless and unable
to sleep. Then, out of completely nowhere, his comm would buzz again with that exact same
message.
He knew exactly what those two were getting up to during those hours of the night. The sound of
that notification appearing any time past 12am was enough to make Scott want to walk into the
ocean and never resurface.
Safe to say, his builds would usually be coated in a layer of ice the next morning.
Scott understood none of this. He’d assumed they’d have broken up by now. But from what he’s
been able to piece together, their connection has only grown stronger.
Some small, desperate part of him had hoped that perhaps once they did break up, Jimmy would
come running back to him. But whenever that thought did come to mind, Scott would do
everything he could to mentally eject it. How could he be so desperate as to even consider
accepting his ex back after everything he’d put him through?? The thought made him pissed, at
both the canary and himself.
Perhaps, Scott really did still love him. But it would take a miracle for him to admit that to anyone.
Even if that ‘anyone’ was just himself.
Yeah, this next Life game was going to be an awkward one for sure. And if all of the arguing that
took place amongst the other players during the after party six months ago was anything to go by,
he wouldn’t be the only one who’d feel that way.
At least the thought of them all being in the same boat during this game brought some sense of
comfort to him.
7:59am.
He sighed. Any moment now, he and the rest of the participants would be automatically spawned
into the game. Scott wondered what kind of twist this session was going to have. Maybe they’d
bring some version of the boogeyman back? That would be interesting.
One thing was for certain however, after the events of the last game, there was no way in hell
Grian would choose to implement any sort of rule that involved soulmates, or partners, or any type
of mechanic that would force two random players to stick together again. That whole thing had
ended so disastrously last time that there was absolutely no doubt in Scott’s mind that it would not
be used again for this session.
Grian would have to be absolutely insane to think it’d be a good idea this time around.
Scott checked his comm one last time.
8:00am.
He vanished.
Here We Go Again
Chapter Summary
The game begins. Grian explains the rules.
The participating members spawned into the new game much as they had in Last Life. All fifteen
players stood spread out in an open plains biome, a circular foundation of bedrock under their feet
with a single enchanting table in the middle of it all. Scott saw Grian begin calling out to people.
He seemed to be counting heads and making sure that everyone had arrived accordingly. Once he
had concluded that all the players were there safe and sound, he stepped forward and began
explaining the rules, just as he had for every other season.
To Scott’s misfortune, Jimmy had happened to spawn in directly across from him in the circle. To
add to this, Grian had spawned right next to him, forcing Jimmy to look almost exactly in Scott’s
direction in order to pay attention to Grian as he was going over the rules.
He felt himself struggle not to make eye contact. He was sure the other was trying to do exactly the
same.
“Alright everyone, welcome back!” Grian started off enthusiastically. “I’m sure we all know the
basic rules by now but I’ll be sure to go over everything just in case.”
Here we go…
“This game will be called Trust Life. It will be played as a hardcore survival world in which
everyone has three lives.”
Scott scanned the crowd once more, doing anything to avoid looking directly back at Jimmy. He
eventually found Tango, who was positioned in between Lizzie and Bigb. The blonde didn’t seem
to notice him.
Grian continued on. “Upon spawning in, your name will be green. But after your first death, it will
then switch to yellow. You’ll still have two lives left, but after you die once more, you will then be
on your red life. As a red life, you will be permitted to physically harm, antagonize and even kill
other players.”
Scott watched as Tango’s eyes finally fell on Jimmy. He silently waved over to him and the other
waved back. They both looked so happy to see each other. So excited, as if they were two little kids
and one of them was waving at the other from outside a store window. As if they hadn’t just seen
each other less than five fucking minutes ago.
His heart ached. He tried bringing his attention back to Grian.
“This season, of course, has a bit of a twist to it.”
Naturally.
“During this game, all players will be part of a group of three…”
Wait- what?
Hello??
Scott’s entire body tensed up upon hearing those words. Did he really just say they’d be playing
this game in groups again? That can’t be right.
“All players will be prone to taking damage as usual. However, once a player’s hearts reach zero,
rather than having their low health result in their own death, it will instead result in the death of
one of their teammates.”
Scott turned his head to face Grian and proceeded to give him a look that could only be interpreted
as ‘what the fuck??’
Grian caught his eye, giving him a cautious smile before continuing on with the rules.
“You can refer to these occurrences as phantom deaths. Upon reaching zero hearts, the phantom
death of one teammate will have a split 50/50 percent chance of triggering an actual death between
either one or the other of the player’s two teammates. If, at some point, one teammate ends up
dying for good, then the likeliness of a phantom death causing the real death of the remaining
teammate will switch to 100 percent.”
He had to be joking.
Another quick look around the spawn site told Scott that he was far from being the only person
who was currently questioning Grian’s sanity. The excited glances that Tango and Jimmy were
giving each other had shifted into some form of nervous non-verbal communication. If Scott had to
guess, going off the expressions on their faces, they were probably communicating something
along the lines of, ‘are you hearing this??’
He looked to Pearl. She also appeared to be confused and more than a little freaked out. He turned
to Cleo, who had spawned in next to Bdubs. The two were frantically whispering things to each
other, panicked expressions on both their faces.
“Now, this is where the title of the game comes into play. Since your own success in the game will
be closely dependent on that of your teammate’s, You will all have to work together to survive as a
group, as well as place trust in your fellow team members to keep themselves away from danger.
With this in mind, if one team member’s life is threatened by that of another player on an opposing
team, all other team members will be permitted to fight back regardless of what color they’re on.”
Anyone who was whispering before was now muttering, which then shortly turned into talking. A
few ‘what?’s and ‘hang on-‘s floating around in the air. Scott had a feeling the talking was about to
turn into yelling real soon…
“Now, unlike last game, you’ll know who your teammates are right from the start.”
Oh Jesus…
“If you would all pull out your communicators, you should be able to see the names of your team’s
other two members right up in the top left corner.”
Scott’s eyes widened. And so did everyone else’s. The sounds of panicked shuffling filled the air as
everyone went to reach for their comms, rifling through pockets and inventory slots as the overall
volume of the area began to increase.
Scott wasted no time. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his own comm. This had to
be one of Grian’s pranks. A really shitty one that he’d be sure to yell at him for later, but a prank
nonetheless.
The rules they had all just heard made no sense. If a player’s own death was entirely dependent on
their teammate’s ability to stay out of danger then there would be no need to make any groups of
three at all. Why not just make it like Double Life where there’s two people per group? What was
the point of this??
He hovered over the ‘on’ button on his comm. There was no way Grian did what Scott thought he
did.
Scott pressed the button and the screen came to life. He went to look at the top corner—and…
Remaining Teammates:
SolidarityGaming, Tango
Scott nearly threw his comm into the river. The world around him had gone silent as he struggled
to contemplate what this would mean for him. For a few moments, all he was able to hear was his
own heart beating in his ears. It was as if everything was in slow motion. He turned his head to
face Grian, who, despite Scott’s expectations, did not have some kind of shit-eating grin on his
face.
Instead, he might have described the look in his eyes as hopeful.
Scott opened his mouth to speak.
And then, in an instant, everything sped up again.
There were now about a bunch more people surrounding him than there were before. All had their
anger directed towards Grian.
Turns out Scott wasn’t the only one who found himself paired up with the last people on earth he’d
wanted to be with.
A frenzy of arguing began. There were so many voices speaking at once that they’d all become
indistinguishable. At one point, he did find himself joining in on the yelling, but there wasn’t much
else he could have yelled at Grian for that hadn’t already been brought up.
From what Scott was able to piece together, just about everyone had been teamed up with at least
one other person with whom they’d had drama with in the past.
Scott watched on as Grian tried to respond to everyone at once. Despite the chaos, he didn’t seem
too worried. It’s as if he’d been expecting this exact reaction.
“Can we log out?”
“No, everyone is locked into the game until completion.” This was nothing new. Scott knew this
had been the case for previous sessions as well.
“Can we switch teams?”
“Not possible.”
“Were these teams even randomized at all??”
Grian seemed to be dodging the question on that one.
More arguing ensued until eventually, Scar was able to settle everyone down. Unsurprisingly, he
had been teamed up with Grian. And he didn’t look all too pleased about it either. But despite this,
he still took Grian’s side.
“Look, I know this situation isn’t ideal. Believe me, I’m a bit… surprised—as well.” He shot Grian
a quick glare, making the parrot hybrid sink his head deeper into his turtleneck as if trying to hide.
“But who says this has to change anything?” He continued. “If we’re all going to be stuck here for
the next however many days, why not try to have fun just like we always do?”
A few of the players mellowed out, seeming to look at their new teammates with a deeper
consideration.
Scott, however, was not among these people.
With the noise level having decreased somewhat, he took this opportunity to grab Grian by the
shoulders and spin him around so as to finally get him to listen. It was only then that Scott realized
that Tango was trying to get through to Grian as well.
“Grian-!” He started, ready to chew out his so called ‘friend’ who’d just placed him in quite
possibly the most socially awkward situation imaginable.
But Tango was louder.
“Grian, what the hell??” The blaze hybrid flared, eyes glowing a fiery shade of red. “Why would
you pu t us-“ he aggressively gestured between Scott and himself. “-on the same team? Actually-
screw that, why would you even make teams to begin with?? You know how this ended last time!”
Surprisingly, Grian managed to keep his cool as he replied.
“Last time, we didn’t have any memory of our past relationships. Now,” He he pointed a finger to
the side of his own head. “We do.”
Tango hadn’t appeared to be feeling any more sympathetic than he did before. Guess that made
two of them. Grian continued, now speaking to the rest of the group as a whole.
“I won’t confirm or deny anything about whether or not the teams for this session were
predetermined…”
Well that sure was convincing.
“But I would suggest you all try to see this as an opportunity. Perhaps make an effort to actually
work together with your teammates instead of just complaining about who it is you got teamed
with.”
At least half a dozen players let out annoyed groans at the same time. Scott guessed they really
were all in the same boat in more ways than he’d expected. Fine. Whatever. That wasn’t going to
keep him from constantly making it Grian’s problem. In fact, there was no doubt in his mind that
the avian now had the biggest target out of any Life player ever painted on his back. But he
probably already knew that.
After a few more complaints were thrown around, everyone seemed to eventually accept that there
was no getting out of this and simply went to gather supplies and play the game as it was meant to
be played: in groups—as awkward as that was going to be for some people.
Scott lingered for a bit after the other players had left. Cleo shot him a look on her way out that
seemed to be one part sympathy and one part ‘I’m so sorry I dragged you into this’.
But He didn’t blame Cleo for any of this. None of them could have known what they were in for.
It was Grian he was pissed at.
He glared at his friend, murder in his eyes. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re trying to do.”
He jabbed an accusing finger hard into Grian’s chest. “People aren’t going to make amends with
each other just cause you’ve forced them to work together. If anything, they’ll probably all hate
each other even more by the time this game is over.”
Grian didn’t flinch. He still looked as though he was convinced that he was completely in the right
about this.
“And don’t think I’m not going to be coming after you for the rest of the game either. I will kill
you.”
All the other did in response was smirk.
“I’m counting on it…” He said ominously, as if he were trying to antagonize Scott even more. He
then proceeded to walk off to join his team.
Scott was now clenching his fists so hard his nails were digging into his palms. He was so lost in
thought that he hadn’t registered the person calling his name.
“Scott?”
He looked up, turning his head to where the noise was.
Jimmy stood a short distance away from him, an arm wrapped around Tango’s waist. He had likely
been trying to calm his anger down. Scott remembered that they weren’t allowed to use any of their
powers or abilities during the game so as to make things as fair as possible. So no flying for Grian,
no ice powers for Scott….
No fire for Tango.
Reluctantly, Scott made his way over towards the two, still noticeably peeved at how intimate they
were being. But he’d gotten at least somewhat used to it by now.
Even so, the realization of what kind of situation he was going to be in for the rest of the game
continued to sink in. He’d honestly just ought to throw himself off the nearest ravine a few times
just to knock Tango out of the game. That was how this worked, wasn’t it? His health reaches zero
and either Tango or Jimmy dies.
Tango, or Jimmy.
Damn it.
He looked at the canary hybrid. He hadn’t seen him in anything other than his sheriff getup since
they started up Empires again. To his surprise, Jimmy had decided to change into the blue top that
Scott had given him about a year ago. The same one that he himself was currently wearing.
He wondered if Jimmy had done that on purpose just to antagonize him or if maybe he’d had it for
so long he’d forgotten who it’d used to belong to.
It didn’t matter.
“So… I guess we’re all just gonna be on the same team then?” Jimmy stated.
Scott looked over to Tango, who had moved his arm so that it was mutually wrapped around his
partner, holding him protectively as if he was expecting Scott to snatch him up and run away any
second now.
“I guess we are… Scott breathed frustratedly. He glared back at Tango and Jimmy seemed to
notice the immediate tension, because he changed the subject right away.
“We should go grab some wood and try to go mining.” He said quickly, giving Tango a comforting
squeeze as he did. The other seemed to cool down for long enough to agree. “Yeah, wouldn’t want
to be stuck out here at night with no armor.” He said, eyes still locked on Scott.
Jimmy pointed a finger out past the other. “How about we head out and look for caves in that
direction? I havent seen anyone go there yet.”
Tango shrugged, angered facade dropping. “Works for me, angel.” He grinned and took Jimmy’s
hand, beginning the walk for the both of them. “You coming, Smajor? ”He called back.
Scott didn’t reply as he went to follow them silently.
Grian was going to pay for this.

Heat
Chapter Summary
Tango and Scott get into a fight. They both forgot how the rules of the game work.
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
It was midday by the time they found a decent cave. During their entire walk there Scott had been
forcing himself into thinking of literally anything as a way of distracting himself from what was
going on in front of him.
He’d been trailing behind the couple for much of the walk, seeing how they held each other, how
Tango still had an arm around his partner, one hand playing with some bits of his feather fluff for a
while before slowly making its way lower into the arch of Jimmy’s back. The canary didn’t seem
to be voicing any complaints.
Scott felt a lot like vomiting right in that moment.
Along the way, they’d all been able to gather wood and food and make some stone tools. Now, the
three of them had worked their way deep into a cave system that seemed to be flooded with ores.
Scott figured it was a nice find. At least one thing was going right for him today.
To that extent, the couple had seemed to be ignoring him the entire time, focused only on each
other, both cracking jokes and talking about life almost as if he wasn’t even there. At one point,
Scott started wondering if he had somehow died before the game started and this was now his
purgatory: being forced to third wheel his ex and his enemy for all eternity.
He groaned, taking an extra harsh stab at a chunk of iron. Following the few hours that had passed
since the game began, Scott started to wonder why he was even putting up with these two. He may
not be able to kill himself or his teammates, but there was nowhere in the rules that kept him from
just going off on his own like last time. If anything, that might even be to his benefit, seeing as it
had gotten him quite far in the last game.
But then he remembered how similar this game was from Double Life. His ability to survive the
Life games didn’t count for anything in this world. Not if he had teammates who were prone to
dying.
During the last session, he had shared a health bar with Pearl, meaning that he at least had some
control over how fast they both healed via eating. In addition to this, if one of them died, they died
together. So there was always a motive for one soulmate to refrain from killing the other.
But this wasn’t Double Life, no. This game took the mechanics of Double Life and added in a
world of uncertainty. If someone on Scott’s team lost all their hearts then there’d be no telling what
happens next.
On top of this, he knows that Tango probably wants him out of the game just as much as Scott
wants the same for him. He knew that the only thing preventing either of them from repeatedly
killing themselves until the other was past red was the chance that their phantom death would
cause Jimmy’s actual death instead. And they both knew that the canary was about as unlucky as
they came.
Besides, if quitting the game wasn’t an option then he might as well try to win it. And he’d be
dammed if he were to lose his last life before Grian did.
And so, he stuck near them. Because he knew that the only way to win this thing was to do
everything in his power to ensure that his teammates stayed alive.
He mined another chunk off. Gods, this heat was the worst. Small, stuffy spaces were going to be
the death of him. It certainly didn’t help that they were deep underground and surrounded by hot
lava on nearly all sides.
Tango and Jimmy were now annoyingly whispering to each other like two grade schoolers trying
not to get caught by the teacher. Scott inched a bit closer over to where they were, about to mine a
spot that they had missed before hearing Tango whisper his name into his partner’s ear.
He turned his head, seeing the two of them flinch as he looked directly at them. “Have anything
you’d like to share??” He asked dramatically.
Jimmy was the first to speak. “Ah- no. No it’s fine. It’s nothing. Hey, let’s go mine over there
now-“
Tango spoke second, vocal as always.

“We were just talking about how weird you look when you mine. He chuckled slightly. Apparently
this was amusing for him. “You’re sweating like—way too much for it to be normal. Something
wrong with you or…?”
The blaze hybrid had been smirking throughout that entire quip. Scott looked over to Jimmy. He
had his face buried in his hands, clearly agitated. “Tango- just knock it off, please?” He tried to talk
to him. He wasn’t listening. Scott let his pickaxe fall to the ground—already tired of holding it
anyway—and proceeded to project all his built up anger from the day on to Tango.
“Well first of all Tango, not everyone is neither born like you are.”
It seemed as though he couldn’t even mind his own business silently when around this guy.
Looking back on it, this had to have been the first time Scott had spoken to Tango one to one in six
months. Nice to see his expectations of him being a general asshole were confirmed.
“And secondly,” He went off again. “if you haven’t noticed, theres lava all around us. And part of
the reason why I’ve probably been sweating my ass off is because you two-“ He gestured to both
Tango and Jimmy. “-have been too busy laughing and screwing around while I’ve been doing all
the hard work!”
Had it gotten hotter in here? Or was that just his blood boiling in his veins? He wasn’t sure.
“Oh wow. Didn’t know it’d be this easy to get you riled up over a joke.” Tango jabbed back.
“Although I guess I should have known better since anger has kind of been, like—your whole
personality since last season.”
Jimmy quickly went from looking annoyed to concerned. He tried to step in once again.
“Okay- well there’s really no need to talk like that. Can we just-“
Scott felt about ready to try and kill this guy all over again. Tango smirked as if he’d wanted this
reaction from him. Fine then. He would make him regret it.
“You say that as if anger isn’t your whole thing too.” He started. “And come on—what are you?
Five? Cause apparently you think that being sweaty is just about the funniest goddamn thing in the
world.”
He had subconsciously moved forward, now being within easy reaching distance of the blaze
hybrid. He gave him a shove and saw his body flash red for just a moment. He probably only took
a single tick of damage, but Scott didn’t care. He just wanted to see how much he could get away
with angering Tango in a game where setting yourself, along with anyone around you on fire out of
uncapped rage while on green was forbidden.
He continued on with his rant.
“And on top of that, you’re in constant need of someone to calm you down from your outbursts in
the same way some tired parent would need to calm down their loud child at a grocery store.”
Tango’s expression shifted. He now looked a lot more pissed. Good.
“Is that how you fucking see it?” He asked, an angered look on his face as he went to shove Scott
right back, this one with much more force.
Scott wasn’t bothered by it. He enjoyed how much he was clearly starting to get under the other’s
skin. He kept at it.
“Oh don’t tell me, you’re about to throw another one of your tantrums?”
He shoved back again even harder. Jimmy was still in the corner of his vision.
“Guys—seriously-“
“Need Jimmy to calm you down again and make sure you don’t throw a fit?” He pushed again.
“Good grief. You really are a man-child, aren’t you-?”
Tango took a big step forward. What Scott thought was just going to be another shove ended up
being a full blown punch to the face. He lost a total of two hearts just from that one hit, stumbling
backwards while trying to keep himself from falling. He felt his feet give way and reached an arm
out behind him to try and break his fall—
But there was nothing to reach for.
Instead, his hand sunk deep into a hot pit of molten lava, the rest of his body soon following. If he
was hot before he was scolding now, limbs thrashing as he tried to reach for something—
anything.
He continued to take more damage as he tried to scramble out. But it was no use. The thick, molten
substance was incredibly hard to maneuver through. On top of that, he had no armor on and had
already taken some damage from Tango. Everyone knew that once you’re in a lava pit, the odds of
getting out in time were slim.
After a few seconds, Scott had just about accepted his fate. He hadn’t gotten the chance to set his
spawn anywhere nearby yet. So at least if he died, it’d give him an excuse to distance himself the
hell away from his teammates. He looked upward to Jimmy, who had made a mad dash towards
the edge of the pit. He had an arm extended out, eyes wide with worry. He was yelling something
that Scott couldn’t understand. He only had half a heart left anyway. He figured he’d humor him.
Scott reached his arm out to grab Jimmy’s—
And then Jimmy vanished. A mashup of mixed items scattered haphazardly in his place.
Smajor1995 tried to swim in lava
SolidarityGaming died
Oh.
Right.
Scott saw his hearts reset right away. Shit. He had to get out of this somehow, didn’t he?
He continued taking damage. At half health, he was able to grab the edge of the lava pool. At a
third of his remaining health he tried to pull himself up, but quickly realized that he wasn’t strong
enough to get over the edge, not with the weight of the molten rock pulling his body down.
Damn it, restricting himself from using any ice was so much more difficult when his memories
weren’t erased and he could actually remember that that was a thing he could do.
Maybe It’ll be Tango who dies this time, at least.
Suddenly, a hand reached out once more, this one belonging to someone else.
Well speak of the devil.
Scott grabbed Tango’s hand at two hearts and was immediately yanked up and out of the pool with
a fierce and surprising amount of strength. He got thrown down to the ground of the cave at one
heart, and at half a heart left, was drenched in water.
Tango had thrown a water bucket at him. Scott was now soaked, the shock of going from hot to
cold instantly knocking the wind from his lungs. He lied there, breathing heavily while trying to
catch his breath.
“You— cough —are— heave —an ass-“
Scott was grabbed by the collar of his shirt, coming face to face with an angry Tango.
Scott smirked. He knew the other couldn’t hit him. He didn’t know how low his health was so he’d
risk phantom killing him again. And then where’d they be?
“You really need to learn how to get your anger under control.” Scott breathed, only an inch away
from the other’s face.
Tango made a growling noise.
“Might just end up killing someone someday, you know?”
Scott grinned. Tango released him and he fell back on to the ground with a thud.
“Just—fucking eat something so no one dies again, okay?”
Scott nodded. He ate a pork chop and waited for his health to return to normal. Then, he aided
Tango in picking up Jimmy’s scattered belongings.
“He’ll be at spawn.” Tango said, grabbing the final item off the ground.
“Unless he’s decided to ditch us.” Scott mentioned. “Which I wouldn’t blame him for after that
shitshow.”
Tango didn’t really respond. Just growled and walked away while muttering something under his
breath. He didn’t wait up for the other.
Scott sighed and made a small attempt to ring out a bit of the liquid still in his shirt. His clothes
were already almost back to being dry anyway. Smoothing his clothes out, he went to follow his
teammate, keeping a steady distance behind him.
The walk back to spawn was an awkward one. Scott decided to distract himself from the silence by
reading through the chat. As expected, a variety of messages had been exchanged quickly
following Jimmy’s first death:
<GoodTimesWithScar> NOOOO-
<BdoubleO100> Heh??
<ZombieCleo> The curse strikes again I see…

<Grian> Bit early in the game for a death don’t you think?
<Grian> Even for Timmy
<PearlescentMoon> Guys it wasn’t even his fault this time remember?
<PearescentMoon> One of his teammates died
<BdoubleO100> Oh yeah, I see that
<InTheLittleWood> Hey Smajor
<InTheLittleWood> How’d that even happen??
Scott didn’t even want to reply to that one. He turned his comm off and stuffed it back in his
pocket. They should be close by now.
The two made their way past a few trees and broke into the plains biome. Sure enough, Jimmy was
there. He seemed to be sitting down, leaning his back up against the enchanting table as he scrolled
though his comm, surely, reading through the same messages as well.
Tango called out to him and Jimmy’s head turned. The canary stood up and swiftly and paced
directly towards his partner. He did not look happy, the new yellow tint to his pupils only making
him appear more threatening.
“What the heck was that??” He yelled angrily, throwing his arms up in the air.
Scott stifled a laugh. He couldn’t help the feeling of pure glee that washed over him upon watching
Tango get chewed out by his boyfriend of all people.
“Why would you go and push Scott like that? Were you so angry that you weren’t thinking
straight? Or did you just forget about the rules entirely??”
Tango looked somewhat guilty. Even so, he tried defending himself.
“Sorry—I just- I didn’t think he was gonna fall in! The pool was like a whole five feet away! Not
my fault he’s just that clumsy.”
Jimmy placed his hands on the other’s shoulders and leaned in closer, putting emphasis on every
word he said next.
“You could have gotten in trouble for that! What you did was completely against the rules! I know
you felt angry, but you can’t just go around attacking people while you’re still on green!”
Tango retaliated. “It doesn’t count as a rule break if my intention wasn’t to kill him, right? He just
died cause he’s stupid.”
Okay, Scott no longer felt like just observing them anymore.
“I died because you pushed me into a fucking pit of molten death!!” He yelled in defense.
“Well you were the one that started all the damn shoving!” Tango yelled back. “I wouldn’t have
pushed you back if you weren’t asking for it!”
“Okay— you know what?” Jimmy spoke again. He marched up to Scott and pointed a finger to his
chest.
“ You need to stop picking fights with him.”
“But I wasn’t even the one who-!”
“And you” His attention was on Tango now. “-can’t just start hurting people without thinking
about the consequences! There are rules to these games, Tango. You can’t go about ignoring them
while thinking you’re the acception just cause you’re more prone to anger.”
Scott had expected Tango to yell something back. But was surprised when the tension in his
shoulders slowly gave way and his expression changed from one of frustration to something a bit
sadder. He walked the short few steps up to Jimmy, gently cupping his face in his hand.
“I don’t like fighting with you.” He whispered sadly. And with the way the words came out, it
simply sounded like the plain truth.
“I don’t either…” Jimmy said, placing his own hand over the one on his cheek. He leaned into it
and stayed like that for a moment before slipping his fingers in between Tango’s and sliding both
their hands down to rest at their sides, still laced together.
Scott’s stomach sank a little upon seeing the display of affection. It may have been due to
frustration, maybe jealously, but he’d experienced this feeling about a million times at this point,
and he never tried to answer that question himself.
Jimmy turned to face him, words now directed to the both of them.
“This game forces us to develop a strategy based on teamwork and trust. I think we should actually
try working with that.”
He turned back around, looking between him and Tango now.
“Could you two—just- at least try not to fight? Please?”
Scott downright hated the idea of having to get along with Tango. But even so, that whole scene
with the lava pit still served as a big wake up call as to what kinds of consequences acts of
agression between team members might have.
Tango was the first to reply. “Yeah, I can do that.” He said.
Guess they were both in this for the long haul.

“Fine. Whatever.” Scott said bluntly.
Jimmy nodded and smiled a bit at the effort they both were showing. Scott couldn’t help but note
how good he felt upon seeing his ex happy because of something he said.
The canary seemed satisfied. He changed the subject. “You guys grabbed my stuff, right?”
Tango jolted a bit and began shuffling through his inventory, emptying it of his partner’s
belongings. “Oh yeah, here…”
Scott followed the other and did the same. Jimmy nodded, storing everything away.
“Thank you-“ He started. “wait—where’s my axe?”
Tango took in a sharp inhale. “The water from my bucket might have pushed it into the lava pit
when I threw it on Scott. Sorry…”
“What the- ughh ” Jimmy groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. “That’s fine. Whatever. I’ll
just make a new one.”
He set up a crafting table and took a quick moment to make his new axe before shooting his head
up in realization. “Wait, you were able to help him out of the lava?” He asked curiously.
Scott chimed in. “Couldn’t really make it out on my own. Tango managed to grab me and put me
out with the bucket right as I was on half a heart.”
Jimmy looked between the both of them, surprise still apparent. Tango on the other hand, seemed
both freaked out and relieved that he’d decided not to give Scott a final punch to the face back in
the cave.
“Oh—well- that’s good.” Jimmy said. He slowly turned back around to work on his axe, now
seeming to be in somewhat of a trance while doing so.
“That’s good…”
Chapter End Notes
Forgot to post these at the end of last chapter. Sorry bout that. Here’s the members of
each team along with what life they’re on:
Scott - Green
Jimmy - Yellow
Tango - Green
Cleo - Green
Bdubs - Green
Etho - Green
Grian - Green
Scar - Green
Bigb - Green
Ren - Green
Martyn - Green
Impulse - Green
Pearl - Green
Joel - Green
Lizzie - Green
I know some team-ups might not make total sense right now but I do have my reasons
for making them the way that they are, which I plan to elaborate more on as the plot
progresses. Also, the pov won’t stick with Scott forever It’ll change eventually,
promise.
House of Memories
Chapter Summary
The team gets started on their base. Grian pays a visit. More drama ensues.
Chapter Notes
Jimmy hadn’t lost too many items to the lava other than his axe. So the group was able to recover
fairly quickly.
They got straight to chopping down more trees with the intention of using the wood to finally
construct their starter base. With all the resources gathered, all that was left was deciding where
and what to build.
It was Tango who suggested that they build their base around the mountains.
“Think about it,” He started. “we build a simple throw-away base into the side of the mountain.
But then, we tunnel further inward and make our real base deeper towards the interior. That way, if
anyone tries to burn or blow up our house, they won’t actually be damaging anything of value since
the outside structure will serve as a decoy.”
Tango had been making gestures towards the side of the mountain they were by during his entire
pitch. He looked towards his two teammates, seeking approval.
“So?” He finished. “Thoughts?”
Scott couldn’t help but find it funny how enthusiastic the other was about this build concept. But
when all was said and done, it really didn’t seem like a bad idea.
“That… actually sounds like a decent strategy.” Scott said somewhat hesitantly.
“Yeah, we could make a secret entrance for it and everything.” Jimmy replied. “We just need to
make sure that the tunnel to the real base is really well hidden. Random pillaging from other
players isn’t uncommon in these games, after all.”
Scott nodded his head, agreeing. “Maybe we could put up a wall of obsidian in front of it to make
sure no explosions reach it if anything gets set off?”
Tango took out some wood. “Yeah, that could work.” He began placing the wood in the form of an
outline along the side of the mountain. “I’m thinking we dig out a space for the decoy base that’s
about this big.” He put the wood away and summoned his pic. “Then, we make a short tunnel at
the back of it leading even farther inward to the real base.” He turned back around.
“Sound good?” He asked.
Scott had no objections. He knew Jimmy wasn’t much of a builder, so he figured that he could be
the one to mine out the inner base while him and Tango got to constructing the decoy one.
“Yeah, that seems alright.” He voiced his thoughts, eyes darting to Jimmy. “You’re alright with
doing the mining, right?” He asked.
“Yeah, that’s fine with me.” The canary responded, grabbing his pic as he made a move towards
the outline that Tango had made and began chipping away at the space inside it. “You guys can
build whatever feels right. Just Make sure to put enough effort into it so that it looks like we aren’t
just building it to hide something.”
Scott shrugged and took out some wood. “Got it.” He said. “Make it look pretty .”
Jimmy chuckled a bit at the comment before continuing on with his work. Scott cursed the sudden
feeling of happiness that shot through him upon hearing his ex’s laugh. He took a breath and went
to join Tango as he expanded on his outline.
The two worked in near silence for a while, safe for the occasional question or comment.
“There should be stairs here, right?”
“Yeah”
“Can I make an archway up here?”
“Sure, go for it.”
It was an odd feeling, not wanting to bite the other’s head off every time he spoke. But even if it
was mostly the concentration he had on building that distracted him from wanting to fight Tango,
Scott still considered these moments a win, so long no as no one was killing each other.
Jimmy eventually joined in on the building process once all the mining had been done. It was easy
for him to fill in the gaps now that the initial build had taken form. Meanwhile, Scott agreed to
switch places with him and went to get a head start on constructing the interior of the secret base.
He hung up some lanterns for lighting and had outlined the entire mined out section with dark oak,
giving it a cozy appearance. He then placed down a few chests, storing all of their valuables in it
before carving out a small section for a fireplace and filling it with stone. He figured they’d be able
to get some netherrack to light it once they went to the nether. But in the meantime, they should
perhaps figure out how to make some sort of ventilation system for the smoke that won’t alert
anyone of their secret base.
Scott got to mapping it out, wondering if he should just move the fireplace inside the decoy home
instead. But he hadn’t thought too long about it before hearing some louder talking outside.
He walked down the short interior hall and out towards where the exit was, surprised to see Grian
upon stepping out. He was having a talk with Tango and Jimmy on the front lawn. No one seemed
to be acting with agression, but that didn’t mean they were pleased to see each other. And neither
was Scott. Tango, in particular, looked as though he was biting back on a few choice words, hand
clenching on to his boyfriend’s like he’d explode if he let go.
Scott made himself visible, stepping out onto the small porch that his two teammates had built. He
quickly noticed that Grian was completely alone, no teammates to be seen. At first, Scott figured
this seemed like a bad idea for a player that was still wanted dead by half the server. But then he
remembered how the game worked. Him walking around on his own wasn’t ignorance, it was
strategy. If he were with his teammates, then a player with intent to kill him would have to go for
those two rather than Grian himself. But with him being alone, there was no actual way to kill him.
It was likely that Grain’s teammates were out discreetly gathering resources. All the while, leaving
the responsibilities involving negotiations and player interactions to him.
Scott hated how Grian knew exactly what he was doing. He figured that this game would be more
stacked in his favor than the last ones since he’d be able to remember the rules he put in place upon
starting. He would have been able to plan a strategy based around those rules months in advance.
Yeah, Grian was going to be a tough enemy to beat.
Just then, the avian saw him and waved. “Hey there Scott!” How’s it going?” He yelled out.
Scott hadn’t felt like giving the other so much as the time of day. Even so, he responded. “I don’t
know Grian, how do you think it’s been going for me??”
Grian seemed to sense the sass in the other’s tone. He dialed his excitement back a little. “I saw the
death message earlier today. I’m really sorry about that. Lava is a pretty nasty way to go.
Frustrating too.”
Scott displayed no reaction.
“But I’m glad you were able to get out before anything worse could happen!” The other continued.
His gaze went up towards their nearly finished build. Scott suddenly remembered what it was
hiding and made a mental note not to let Grian inside if he asked to look around, as the tunnel
towards the secret base hadn’t been covered up yet.
“That build looks like it’ll be great once it’s done.” He said encouragingly. Jimmy ended up being
the first one to speak at that.
“Thank you!” He said, not an ounce of anger in his voice. “It’ll probably be finished before the end
of the day.”
Scott hadn’t been able to get a proper look at what Jimmy and Tango had been finishing up. From
where he was standing on the porch, he was able to see a nice scattering of moss and flowers
placed around the front lawn. He thought it looked pretty.
He turned his attention back to Grian, still angered by the fact that he wouldn’t be able to kill him
just yet. Maybe he’d have some time later today to think up a strategy that could bend the rules just
enough for him to still do some damage as a green life.
But for now, he guessed he’d just have to put up with him.
“So did you just come here to stare at our build or…?”
Grian’s smile faltered a bit. But overall, he didn’t seem too bothered by the rude comment.
“Actually, I‘ve been looking for you guys for a while.” He took out a small sac from his inventory
and tossed it over to Scott who caught it with ease. It was heavy. He looked inside and saw that it
was filled with gold ingots.
“I noticed that none of you have made the nether advancement yet so I assumed you haven’t gotten
a chance to go today.” He stated calmly. “Just figured you could make some use of that if you did
plan on going. Maybe make some boots out of it to keep away the brutes.” He smiled. “Consider it
a peace offering.”
Scott had absolutely no intention of making any sort of peace with the avian at all. Regardless,
Jimmy accepted it for him.
“Thank you.” He said, noticeably tightening his grip on Tango’s hand. “We’ll make good use of
it.”
Grian let out a breath. “Glad to hear it.” He replied, making his way back in the other direction.
“Guess I’ll see you guys around then.” He waved them off and left. Leaving the three team
members in total silence.
“He’s such a smart-ass.” Tango said, being the first to break it. Scott couldn’t help but agree. Just
this morning Grian was all but daring him to come after him and now he’s acting as though there
wasn’t any bad blood between them. It felt suspicious.
“I don’t know.” Jimmy said. “He seemed pretty genuine about the whole thing. I think he just
wanted to see how we were getting along.”
Scott tensed up, hands gripping on to the porch railing. He didn’t care what the avian’s intentions
were. He still planned on killing him regardless.
He stored the gold away in one of their chests and stepped back out, making his way towards the
front yard so as to get a better look at how their decoy starter home was looking.
“Is it almost done?” He asked, taking a step off the porch.
“Yeah, almost.” Jimmy replied. “I think its coming along nicely.”
Scott made his way to the front yard and placed himself right next to the other two. He turned
around to see what his teammates had done.
He froze in place, a deeply uncomfortable feeling of anxiousness working its way through his
whole body.
It had only been in that moment when he realized just how much their build resembled the hobbit
hole he and Jimmy had made back in Third Life.
The structure was made partially of wood and stone, each block along the outside forming
somewhat of a circular structure. A couple of vines were hanging off the sides for decoration,
coupled with an abundance of lush flowers that covered nearly every spot on the thing (well,
Jimmy had said to make it look pretty, didn’t he?) while almost the entire structure had been built
into the side of the mountain.
Scott decided then and there that he hated it.
His gaze turned towards his ex, who appeared to have noticed the same thing he did, but hadn’t
seemed nearly as distressed about it.
Once again, Scott spoke without thinking. “I don’t like how this looks.” He let out before he could
fully comprehend what he was saying.
“Wait—what??” Tango replied, visibly confused.

The other tried to make something up as an excuse. Tried to rationalize his hatred for the build.
“It’s too small” He voiced. “Doesn’t look like it was made with the purpose of fitting three
people.”
Jimmy only looked at him with concern. Meanwhile, Tango looked as though he was trying to hold
back on fighting with him for the second time that day. “Dude,” He started. “ you helped us build
it.”
Scott summoned his axe and began walking forward, not entirely aware of what his body was
doing in that moment. “And I can help you tear it down and start over.” He said, and began hastily
chopping away at the structure.
“Wait—hang on-!” Jimmy yelled. Him and Tango both tried to reason with him, but Scott was in
his own world at that point.
“We don’t have to start over completely!” The blaze hybrid argued. “We can just fix whatever it is
you hate about it!”
His partner quickly agreed. “Yeah, what is it you don’t like??”
“All of it.” Scott replied bluntly. And it was the truth. He’d been trying not to think about his past
with his ex for as long as they’d been broken up for. But the whole structure of this game had made
that an impossible feat not only due to its twist—which forced the players into groups of three—but
also because of how the very idea of it made him recall all sorts of painfully happy memories. This
game was how him and Jimmy had started their relationship. It was the reason they’d ended it. It
was the source of all of Scott’s pain.
And this stupid house only served to remind him even more of what they could have had.
It was then that he’d decided his axe wasn’t going fast enough and instead opted for burning the
thing down.
“Okay, well thats just—hey-!” Jimmy spoke up again, now seeing his ex take out a flint and steel.
“What the hell man!” Tango let go of Jimmy’s hand and raced up to his other teammate, physically
grabbing the other by the shoulders and trying to yank him away only after he’d managed to set a
handful of planks on fire.
“Dude- Just knock it off-!”
Scott grit his teeth and spun around, snapping out of his haze and fully directing his attention on
Jimmy.
“We could have been happy together!” He yelled, all his built up frustrations now making
themselves known.
Jimmy only stared back at him, confused. “What are you-“
He cut the other off, continuing his rant. “Nothing had to have changed. I don’t know how much
you really cared for Tango, but surely you could have moved past him! What was it about him that
made you want to stay with him after only knowing him a week? What did he have that I didn’t?
Jimmy’s eyes widened. He said nothing.
Scott could now feel tears trying to escape his eyes. He wiped them away, trying not to come off as
hysterical.
“Did you leave just because you got tired of me??” He took a step forward, slowly coming up to
meet his ex face to face. His next words coming out much quieter.
“Was I really not enough for you?” He asked, looking the canary directly in his eyes. Tone now
sounding more sad than angry.
Jimmy could only stare for a moment before his expression suddenly turned much darker, eyes
glaring and fists clenching at his sides. Tango looked surprised at the change in demeanor. Scott
wondered if the other had ever really seen him like this at all.
Jimmy retaliated. “ I’m not the one who left you .” He reinforced, leaning in closer. “ You made the
decision to leave instead of talking things through.
Scott took another step forward, anger now taking back control. “Then tell me, Jimmy. What was
there to talk about?” He wasn’t backing down from this. “Were you suppose to somehow convince
me that I should be fine with you having another partner in your life?” He looked to Tango, who
was still watching on in shock, and gestured to him. “What about Tango? Would he have even
wanted that?”
Jimmy’s wings splayed out. Him and Scott were likely no more than an inch away from each other
by now. Scott recalled the last time they were this close. It was the night before Double Life. He
was holding on to Jimmy after he’d fallen asleep on top of him while they were watching a movie.
He’d just woken up and realized where he was, head lifting up to meet the other’s face. Scott
remembered him smiling ever so gently, hair a complete mess and pupils dilated as he looked into
the his partner’s eyes with complete and total affection.
Now, those eyes were just filled with rage. And maybe, something more. But Scott hadn’t bothered
to figure out what.
Jimmy was about to defend his partner. But, as always, Tango was more than capable of speaking
for himself.
“I would have been happy with anything that made him happy.” He argued, voice quieter than
either of the two had expected.
He continued, now getting louder. “But ever since the start of all this, you’ve made it very clear to
me that you’re the last person who would’ve done that for him.
Tango said this with finality. Scott noticed that Jimmy had turned his attention back to him as well.
“Tango…”
Scott felt sick to his stomach. He’d had enough of this. Screw Tango and his stupid words. Screw
Grian and his stupid rules. And screw this entire game and everyone playing it. He’d still find a
way to survive. He had to. But it wasn’t about to be with these two.
Scott grabbed Jimmy by the shoulder, moving him away so he could get through.
“I’ve had enough of this.” He said, not looking back as he walked away. “If you two love each
other so much, then go die together.” He threw a hand up. “I quit.”
Scott walked away, hearing no sounds of protest as he left.
Chapter End Notes
Gonna be lots of arson going on in this story…
Thank you for all the comments so far! School is hitting me hard so I might be
updating less often just fyi.
Rebuild
Chapter Summary
Tango pov! Finally!
Tango finds out his boyfriend is hiding something from him. Joel and Lizzie pay a
visit.
Chapter Notes
Tango had watched that whole scene play out. All the while, restraining himself from chasing Scott
down and setting him on fire as he walked off into the forest. He was gone now. He’d left.
Aggravating him any more would be pointless. And besides, he still had his boyfriend to worry
about.
Jimmy was stuck standing there, still as a statue as weak tears rolled down from his closed eyes
and past his cheeks.
He figured he’d make Scott pay for all this later, but knew that his boyfriend always took first
priority.
“Hey, come here…” He said, approaching the other slowly and gently wrapping him in a strong
hug. Tango made sure to purposely increase his internal temperature, knowing how much more
comfortable Jimmy would always feel whenever he did that.
All in all, the hybrid wasn’t sure what to say to comfort him after something like that. So he settled
on just speaking his mind.
“Scott’s a jerk. You shouldn’t let what he says get to you.”
Jimmy seemed to ease into the other, arms now coming up to mutually hold him as he leaned his
head into the crook of his neck.
Tango continued. “I think it’s good that he broke things off with you. I can’t stand to imagine how
miserable you’d be if he’d decided to stick around.”
He felt his partner clench his shirt even tighter.
“And I mean, come on—if he’s still not over you after six months then thats his problem. He’s just
choosing to be upset at you over nothing at this point.”
He felt Jimmy tense up in his arms for a second. Then, he pulled away slightly to look up at him,
eyes still red from tears. “You don’t understand…” He started, breath hitching between every
word. “God, you—how could either of you ever understand-?”
Tango frowned, one hand coming up to tread itself gently through Jimmy’s hair. “Understand—
what?” He questioned softly. His partner flinched and went back to hiding his face in his chest.
“I feel so alone in this…” The canary went on. “Everyone had their own problems to deal with
after Double Life but—they were all able to heal to some extent, at least.”
Now, Tango was really concerned. What was his boyfriend going on about?
“Hey,” He continued stroking parts of his hair, speaking his next words as softly and as honestly as
he could manage. “you know you can tell me anything, right?”
Jimmy just stared, eyes still sad as ever. Tango had no plans on forcing anything that he wasn’t
ready to say out of him. But he still needed to know what was wrong in order to help.
The canary looked to the sky. And then, turned his gaze to the burnt up house that they’d almost
finished building. He sighed. “During the first game, when me and Scott had teamed up, we built a
home together. You remember that, yeah?”
Tango nodded. “Yeah, the hobbit hole.”
Jimmy paused and turned his head. Tango followed the other’s gaze over to the decoy house. Only
now noticing the similarities.
“Oh…”
Well, at least now he had some context as to what caused Scott’s outburst.
Jimmy went on. “We’d never gotten around to completing it, with all the chaos and death that was
happening on the server. And then I died and, from what I was told after, he didn’t seem to find
any reason to finish the build once I was gone.”
Tango stood there in silence. He saw Jimmy quickly wipe another tear away before continuing.
“I think, in my mind, I figured that maybe he’d be happy to see something like that put up again.
That maybe—it’d bring back some good memories.”
Another tear fell, and Jimmy opted for simply burying his head in his hands instead of continuing
to wipe them away.
“God…” He said. “How could I have been so stupid?”
That line sent a pang through Tango’s heart. He held Jimmy even tighter and rested his head on top
of his, letting the other lean onto him once more.
“You’re not—stupid.” He said. “You were just trying to make the best out of a shitty situation and
it backfired. That’s all.” He held him tighter. “How could anyone have predicted he’d have that
kind of reaction? Honestly… He needs to get his flint and steel privileges revoked.”
The canary let out a small laugh at that. Tango’s heart swelled upon hearing it.
They continued to hold each other in silence for a few more moments, before Jimmy spoke up
again.
“I’m sorry about all this…. I—I’m really sorry.”

Tango took a pause. “This wasn’t your fault.” He said. “Seriously.”
Jimmy shook his head in disagreement, but didn’t argue the subject any further. “Can we—maybe
go back to building the house?” He asked quietly. Although Tango did not want to let go, he
figured it’d be for the best. If building was what was going to get Jimmy’s mind off of things then
he’d let him make whatever he wanted. Besides, sunset was only about three hours away. And
Scott’s spur of the moment arson had set them back a good bit on the building process.
“Yeah.” He agreed, slowly releasing his hold on the other. “And we don’t have to build it back up
in the exact same way if you dont want to. We can make it look different this time.”
Jimmy nodded his head, now able to smile a little. “Thank you.” He responded, and the two of
them got to work.
Not too far into their process, the pair was approached by another set of players. Joel, of all people,
had stumbled upon their base with his partner Lizzie in tow.
“Oh hey guys! How’s it going?” Lizzie waved from a distance upon seeing them before picking up
her pace.
Jimmy was first to reply, waving back as Lizzie jogged up to the new house. “Going good—going
good.” He half lied. “How’s your group been?”
Joel caught up right behind his wife, just then hearing Jimmy’s question and chancing a quick and
nervous glance at her in response.
Lizzie was the first to reply. Her previous smile dropping ever so slightly. “We’ve been alright.”
The pink-haired woman said hesitantly, her entire posture tensing up.
Side stepping what Lizzie had claimed, neither of them seemed in good spirits. Joel in particular,
looked very restless and anxious. But Tango had been expecting as much. He wasn’t nearly as well
informed about the drama that happened between the couple after Double Life as Jimmy was. But
he’d still managed to pick up bits and pieces of what was going on from the few times in which the
canary had let some details slip. But even despite his habit of letting secrets loose accidentally,
Jimmy still insisted that he keep his lips as sealed on the matter as possible since it was “not his
place to gossip about it.” Which Tango could at least understand somewhat.
“Yeah, us and Pearl have been doing pretty alright for our first day.” The other started off. Overall,
Tango had noticed how he appeared to be much more tired and spent, clothes disheveled and hair a
mess as if he were a student who’d pulled an all-nighter stressing over an exam.
“Hey, speaking of—what happened to Scott? I thought you guys had all decided to tough out the
circumstances and stick together?” Lizzie asked.
Tango went to rub the back of his neck awkwardly. “Yeah… That agreement lasted roughly six
hours.” He stated bluntly.
Joel sharply inhaled. “Right. No offense, but I hadn’t expected anything less.”
Tango shrugged at the statement. No offense taken. He’d figured the same. But still, he hadn’t
anticipated Scott’s breakaway to be as ugly as it was.
Both pairs stared awkwardly for a bit before Lizzie managed to change the subject.
“We’ve actually been looking for some people to trade with.” She started. “We’re in need of some
iron and possibly other ores as well. Have anything of interest?”
Tango grinned. “Oh, yeah. Actually, we did get pretty lucky with our mining this morning. We got
all sorts of things. You can take a look at our haul if you’d like.”
He motioned for Lizzie to follow him into the house. Figuring it was fine they bring guests in since
they’d already managed to cover up the secret entrance. He saw Jimmy making a move to follow
them before getting his sleeve lightly tugged on by a still anxious-looking Joel.
“Wait.” He heard Joel say to the other.
The canary waited. Joel’s eyes turned to the two on the stairs, words now directed at them.
“Sorry to ask this, but could the two of you maybe—handle the haggling on your own?
Tango peered over, blinking in confusion.
“I just—kind of wanted to ask Jimmy about some things. Privately.” His eyes went to Jimmy. “Is
that alright?” He asked the canary.
Joel’s eyes seemed to plead with him. Add those to his already disheveled appearance and Tango
felt it’d be heartless to say no. He had no idea what Joel could so desperately want to talk to Jimmy
about, but he figured the guy wasn’t asking for much.
The hybrid shrugged. “If you’re really okay with that, sure. He then looked to his boyfriend.
“Angel?”
“Sure.” He chimed. “I can stick around.”
He turned back to Lizzie, surprised at how her face had suddenly shifted into something bleaker.
“Fine with me too.” Lizzie mumbled, her voice suspiciously shaky.
Joel paused. “Thank you.” He said.
Tango nodded and continued making his way up towards the front entrance, still listening as the
two began their conversation.
“Alright man,” He heard Jimmy say to Joel.
Him and Lizzie stepped into the house.
“What was it you wanted to talk about?”

He closed the door behind him.
Chapter End Notes
Sorry bout the long wait. Gonna try to get out at least one chapter a week from here on
out.
Lies
Chapter Summary
Jimmy has a difficult talk with Joel. Some realizations are made.
Chapter Notes
Hello again! I hope everything in this conversation makes sense. As much as I

absolutely love writing dialogue, I also suck at it. So please lemme know in the
comments if you have any questions about what’s going on.
Jimmy had a hunch about what it was that Joel had wanted to talk with him about. And it wasn’t
the first time they’d be confronting this subject either.
His weren’t the only old wounds that were being reopened due to the revival of the Life games. He
knew that much for certain. In regards to Joel’s problems, he knew only what the other had been
telling him over the course of the past six months. He knew that Lizzie wasn’t furious about the
whole thing, but she certainly wasn’t happy either. He’d definitely seen the couple appart more
often these days. That was one of the bigger changes. They’d always been so close and in love. So
much so, that any single person would be jealous. To add to this, he knew that Lizzie in particular
was very insistent on sticking by her husband’s side.
That was why it surprised Jimmy when he heard the news that it would only be Joel participating
in Double Life. From what Joel had told him, Lizzie simply had a lot of things that she needed to
get done that would most likely be intersecting with the naturally indefinite schedule of the game.
And that was that.
Despite this however, she had more than insisted that Joel go off and play in this season without
her, telling him that she’d wanted him to have fun whilst promising to join him in the next one.
Joel hesitated of course, but in the end, gave in and figured that he’d just have to tell her all about it
once he got back.
Oh hell, was he in for it after that…
Approximately three weeks and several tear-stained shirts later and Joel had broken down and told
the canary the gist of it. He’d feel wrong for intruding on the personal affairs of the married couple
if he wasn’t already aware—courtesy of the grape vine—that Lizzie had been venting her own
relationship problems to most of the girls on the server as well. Everyone has their own unique way
of coping, he supposed.
The man now stood in front of him once more, arms crossed tightly around his chest as if trying to
both physically and emotionally support himself for what he was about to say. Jimmy figured he’d
have a lot to say this time around, seeing as he’d been noticeably avoiding his wife ever since the
last game and was now somewhat forcefully tied to her for the duration of this one.
Joel bit his lip, seeming to hesitate on his words. Jimmy tried reassuring him.
“I know how uncomfortable you probably feel about being teamed with Lizzie. Has everything
been going alright with you guys? Is there anything I could help you out with?”
Joel lowered his arms, gaze turning directly to his friend.
“I was just wondering,” He began, voice shaking slightly.” and—do tell me if I’m asking
something too personal here, but, how were you able to—get over him? Exactly?” He asked
cautiously.
That—was a new one. He’d figured Joel would have asked him for more relationship advice.
Possibly how him and Tango were able to move past everything that happened after Double Life
and come back stronger from it. But their bond was a… unique one, to say the least. One that had
as messy a foundation as theirs did couldn’t possibly be compared to that of a years long stable,
healthy relationship like Joel and Lizzie’s.
Despite this however, Joel would still seek out Jimmy for advice since his bond with his boyfriend
was evidently the strongest out of anyones on his server. At least, after the last game it was. Not to
mention, it had survived and flourished under far more chaotic circumstances. So, same as
everyone else who had participated in Double Life, Joel was curious as to how they were able to do
it, and the canary would just as often answer that there was no secret to it, that he just simply
couldn’t fathom a world in which he didn’t have Tango with him. It was the truth, of course.
But not all of it.
Now, Joel was unknowingly asking for the rest of what Jimmy had been hiding. A lie he’d been
telling himself for six months ongoing. Perhaps not so much a lie, but a secret.
He wondered if Joel was keeping the same kind of secret.
“Get over—who?” Jimmy pressed on.
“Scott.” The other answered swiftly.
Ah. There it was.
“I mean, I know you did choose Tango in the end-“
No, he didn’t. That was just everyone’s natural assumption. He’d never made a choice. Scott just
made it for him.
“-and that you’ve been together ever since.”
Of course they had. He loved Tango to the ends of the earth. But clinging to him had also served as
a distraction. As much as Jimmy hated to admit.
“So, I figured I’d ask how you did it. How you were able to move past everything that happened
between you guys? A whole year’s worth of it too??”
Jimmy took a deep breath in. He was feeling a lot of things in this moment. Regret, sadness,
frustration, but mostly, he just felt sorry. Both for Joel, and himself. He hesitated to tell the truth
this time. Because the truth was that he’d never moved past anything. That he’d only buried his
feelings deep down in the hopes that they would suffocate if given enough time. But then, time
dragged on. And on. And on.
And now, he was here. In a game that forced everything back up to the surface. Threw it all in his
face without giving him a chance to bury it once more. But boy, did he still try. He clung on to
Tango like a lifeline, ignored his ex every chance he got, went as far as to keep from looking him in
the eyes and would try to change the subject whenever his boyfriend brought him up in hushed
whispers, but he knew these methods were a poor way of avoiding anyone. The feelings were still
there. Scott was still there. And Jimmy had known all this time that despite Scott leaving, despite
him breaking his heart, despite all the time he’d spent with Tango, loving, healing, trying to
forget…
He still loved him.
It hurt to even think about. He recalled how he’d come so close to telling Tango about it just a
short while ago, but had managed to deflect the topic by talking about their base. It was unfair of
him to lie like that, but he was nowhere near ready to spill his feelings for Scott right in front of his
boyfriend who’d just finished telling him how right he was to “break up” with him.
He swallowed down the lump in his throat as he attempted to regain his composure. Joel had no
idea just how similar of a situation they were both in right now, and he couldn’t have picked a
worse person to ask for advice on this subject if he’d tried.
Jimmy shook his head slightly, getting back his train of thought. “Would you care to tell me what
this conversation is really about?” The canary pressed. He already knew, of course. He just needed
Joel to outright say it instead of dancing around the subject. That would make things easier and
more painless for the both of them.
He saw Joel turn his head to look at the front door for just a moment, a look of caution displayed
on his face.
“Don’t worry.” He held a hand up reassuringly. “She won’t hear us from in there. Me and Tango
keep all our ores in the basement, so that’s probably where they went.”
Joel paused and then nodded, taking a minute to collect himself before finally admitting
everything.”
“It’s about Etho…” He whispered shakily.
There it was. Clear as day. At least now the canary knew that he wasn’t as alone in his situation as
he had previously assumed.
But there was one other concern he had. Jimmy’s fists clenched the fabric of his jeans subtly. He
had feared the conversation was going in this direction. “Joel-“ He started, afraid of where his next
question might lead. “Don’t tell me you’ve-“
“Of course I didn’t!” Joel blurted out, face slightly flushed from both embarrassment and anger.
Jimmy immediately regretted insinuating anything. Perhaps it was a little presumptuous of him to
think that Joel would be the type to immediately fling himself back at Etho the moment they were
on the same server again. And with all of his memories back no less.
Yeah, he mentally kicked himself for that one. He knew Joel better than that.
“But—Lizzie,” His friend calmed down slightly, voice back to shaking. “At the start of this all, I
may not have told her— everything .”
“Oh Joel…” The canary had been suspecting this as well. Whenever Lizzie would be the one to
talk to him about this, he’d always gotten the feeling that she was more confused and frustrated
with her husband than she was upset with him. Joel clearly had been hiding something from her.
He heard the other chuckle sadly to himself. “I avoided her nearly that whole day, after the game
ended, you know?” He recalled.
Jimmy nodded along, ready to listen.
“My name would have pinged on her comm once I’d entered Empires, so she knew I was back.
She’d sent me a whole bunch of messages asking me to meet up with her.”
Joel clenched his jaw, looking as though he was trying to hold back tears.
“She missed me.”
Jimmy sighed sadly. “Dude-“
“I had planned to tell her that same day! I swear!” The other exclaimed. Jimmy shut his mouth
quickly once more.
“And I did. Eventually.” He continued “Just as the sun was setting, I’d worked up the courage to
fly to her empire and see her.”
Another beat of silence passed before he went on.
“She ran up and hugged me. I’d been ignoring her all day and she hugged me…”
Jimmy could feel Joel’s guilt seeping out with every word.
“She’d asked me what was wrong and if something had happened in the game that shook me up. I
suppose the look on my face, combined with her missed calls, was already enough of a giveaway
that something wasn’t right.”
Another pause. He hesitated on his next words.
“I—broke down. Right there, in her arms. I don’t remember much of what I’d said. Mostly just
how I felt. Once I’d told her everything, I expected her to yell at me. Or slap me—throw a dammed
trident at me. Lord knows I deserved it.”
Jimmy’s heart broke a little. For whom, he did not know. Perhaps, for both of them.
“But instead, she just looked at me with the saddest expression. She told me that it wasn’t my fault.
That there was no way I could have known I was married to her while in the game, and that she’d
overlooked those risks, same as I did. So there was no one to blame.”
Joel breathed in deeply before continuing.
“And then… She asked about Etho. Asked if I’d felt anything greater for him, anything romantic.
She told me that if I did, she wouldn’t hate me for it. That if that were the case, then we could
figure out a way to get through this together. But, she said I had to be completely honest and open
with her about it if we were to be able to fix anything.”
“What did you say?”

The other froze, too scared to speak.
“You told her the truth—right?”
He slipped his head into his hands and made a noise of discomfort.
“ Right?? ”
Joel’s head shot up. “I told her I didn’t!” he yelled, his frustration clearly directed more towards
himself than at his friend. “I told her that everything I’d felt for him during the game had
evaporated the moment it ended and I’d gotten my memories back.”
“Oh god —Joel-“
“You weren’t there like I was!” He argued. “You didn’t see the look on her face! How heartbroken
she already was!”
His next words came out more as a mumble, the man looking to the ground, visibly disappointed in
himself. “I couldn’t tell her that. Not on top of everything else. I just—I couldn’t…”
Jimmy was holding a surprising amount of empathy for his friend in that moment. How had he
never mentioned this to him before? Had he not trusted him enough? They had been getting a lot
closer to one another during their second season of Empires. Maybe he really did just decide to tell
him now simply because he felt they were close enough at this point. Or maybe, it was only his
forced confrontation with these feelings via the current game that now made him feel as though
he’d explode if he didn’t open up to someone. Maybe a bit of each. Jimmy couldn’t be sure. But he
knew he had to keep listening. To his knowledge, Joel was still the only friend he had that was in
nearly the exact same boat that he was.
“I wouldn’t have lied if I’d have known these feelings would stick with me for so long.” Joel
continued. “I thought they’d just fade away with time. That it’d only hurt for a little while.”
He clenched his fists in frustration. “But it’s been six months, Jimmy. Six months. And every time
my wife tries tries to hang around me or get close in any way, all I can think about is how I lied to
her face. How I still feel things for Etho.”
Jimmy had a similar sort of guilt. It wasn’t nearly as strong, however. He’d always at least had the
excuse that he’d never outright told anyone he’d stopped feeling anything for his ex. I’m fact, he’d
basically announced his current emotional standing with Scott to everyone during the events of the
after party when he’d begged him to stay. It wasn’t his fault if Tango and all his friends had just
assumed he’d moved on when he had claimed no such thing.
But of course, deep down, he knew that didn’t make things any less wrong.
Damn it all. Maybe he should confess this to Tango.
Joel went on. “I love her so much.” He stated. “I do. But I think.. I might love him too.”
Yeah, this was all starting to hit a little too close to home for him.
“You know what makes this so much worse? What makes me just a worthless human being?” Joel
continued. Jimmy rose an eyebrow, both in question and concern.
“It wasn’t even my idea to come back to this game. It was Lizzie’s. She wanted to go back. Wanted
to use our participation in this game as a sort of test to see if we’ve really moved past everything
that had happened in Double Life.”
Jimmy didn’t like where this was going.
“And you know why I said ‘yes’? Told her I’d be willing to join her?”
Oh shit.
“It’s cause some part of me still wanted to see Etho again. Or… wanted an excuse to run into him,
is more like it.”
Joel looked to be on the verge of tears now. He ran a hand through his hair and let out a shaky sigh.
“Aren’t I just the worst??” He yelled. And Jimmy didn’t know what to say.
How could he say anything? What gave him any right to berate Joel for holding feelings for Etho
in the exact same way he still held feelings for Scott? At least the other felt guilty over it, even to
the point where it was clearly affecting his mental—not to mention physical—health.
But Jimmy wasn’t the same. No, he was selfish. He’d taken every bit of love his boyfriend had
given him. Every shoulder to cry on, every hand to hold, every stolen kiss, all while desiring the
exact same thing from his ex. How greedy could he get??
If the guilt wasn’t hitting him before, it was certainly hitting him now. He needed to tell Tango
everything, regardless of how afraid he was of his reaction. The man had a right to know that his
partner was practically cheating on him in every way but physical. Whatever backlash he got was
what he deserved for keeping Tango in the dark for so long about something so important. It was
the right thing to do as his partner.
But first, he needed to let Joel know that too.
Jimmy cleared his throat and began. “Clearly, all of your guilt is coming from this lie you’ve been
telling Lizzie from the very beginning.”
Joel looked up. He went on.
“I know for a fact that I’m not the first person you’ve gone to for advice on this. And I also know
that everyone else has given you just about the same response.”
Joel winced. Jimmy knew he had him there. He actually hadn’t known anything matter-of-factly,
only that Joel had gone to both Sausage and Fwip at one point for a similar discussion, as the two
had brought it up with him when they were hanging out but hadn’t disclosed any details. Either
way, he figured they would have presented Joel with the same solution. The obvious, and most
likely only solution.
Well, third times a charm, he guessed.
“Lies are what started all this and more lies are only going to end it.” Jimmy said sternly. “And
when I say ‘end’, I don’t mean in a pleasant way. I mean your marriage will probably be in more
pieces than it already is. You need to come clean to Lizzie about everything.”
His friend flinched. He clearly hadn’t expected the other to be this upfront with his response.
“ Everything .” He finished, that last word spoken more to himself than to Joel. “What happens,
happens. Maybe she’ll continue to forgive you and stick around to help you sort out this mess.
Maybe she’ll leave you and you’ll be in an even bigger one. I don’t know. I don’t know your wife
better than you do and I certainly don’t speak for her. But I know that she deserves to know the
truth. Cause it sounds as though that’s all she’s been asking you for this whole time.”
The other looked defeated. Jimmy figured he’d finally accepted his fate that—as painful as this
was going to be—there was no other way around it.
“Alright then.” He sighed. “If that’s really what everyone keeps saying I should do, then I suppose
there’s no other way to go about it…”
The canary let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “Good.”
It was then that he remembered just how long Joel had been keeping this from Lizzie. He clearly
had a habit of putting his personal problems off to the side for as long as possible. He’d done it
when he’d avoided Lizzie for an entire day before telling her about Etho, and he’d waited until just
now to accept the advice about his relationship that multiple people had been giving him.
Joel wasn’t going to be putting this off for even longer. Not on his watch.
“One more thing.” Jimmy spoke. “Don’t hold off anymore on telling her this like you did after
Double Life. Just rip the bandaid off and tell her—let’s say, at least before the end of this game.”
Joel’s shoulders slumped. He nodded reluctantly. “Right, of course.” He then looked up, a small,
tired smile on his face.
Thank you, Jimmy. For listening.”
Jimmy nodded back. “It’s no problem.”

They both paused. Joel looked a bit more serious now.
“You never did tell me how you got over Scott.” He said quietly.
Jimmy’s mouth formed a flat line. He gave the other a calm look of mutual understanding. And in
that moment, they both knew the answer to that question.
“Oh. I- I’m so sorry…” Joel spoke quietly. And all the canary could do was stare.
They both jumped when the front door swung open. Tango and Lizzie stepped out.
Deadline
Chapter Summary
Tango is worried about Lizzie. She spills all of her worries to him. An agreement is
made.
Chapter Notes
Probably not what y’all expected but this conversation is plot relevant I swear…
Next chapter should be up quicker this week.
“So, you said you needed some ores, yeah?” Tango spoke as he threw open another door, guiding
Lizzie down to the basement area. Him and Jimmy hadn’t gotten around to moving all of their
belongings to the secret inner base, but the more people who thought they’d intended on keeping
their ores in the basement the better.
He made sure to close the door behind them, both his and Lizzie’s steps echoing against the dimly
lit walls as they descended.
“Uh, yeah. Mostly just iron, if you have some.” Lizzie replied, her voice still shaking a bit too
much for Tango’s comfort. Something was definitely up with her and it was worrying him. He
figured he should find a way to bring it up with her subtly in their conversation at some point.
He continued his descent. “We’ve been keeping most of that stuff down here. Let’s see what we-“
Before he could even reach the bottom, he heard the other’s body hit the ground with a soft thud.
“Lizzie?”
He turned to look behind him, only to see the pink-haired woman now with her head in her arms
and her knees curled up to her chest. She was crying.
So much for bringing up her mood subtlety.
“Oh, Jesus—Lizzie, what’s wrong?” Tango asked, quickly moving to sit beside her. He was able to
see a bit more of her face from this angle. She did not look very happy.
It took a moment for the other to respond. But once she did, it came out in a soft, trembling tone.
“Joel’s avoiding me again…” She uttered ever so quietly.
The blaze hybrid froze. His concern now grew immensely as he tried to reassure the other.
“What? No! He just wanted to talk with Jimmy about something-“
“ Sure he did.” Lizzie sneered. “At least, that’s what he claimed. I’m sure he’d love to have a ‘talk
with Jimmy’ about any random thing if it means getting away from me .”
Tango stayed still for a moment, taking in everything his friend had just said. He only decided to
speak again once he was sure the sound of him talking wouldn’t upset her further.
“What’s wrong? Really?”
She chanced a look at him, one arm still covering half her face. She seemed as though she was
contemplating if she should let loose even more information than she already has.
Tango lowered his voice to a gentle whisper, leaning in slightly. “You know, I’m not the only one
who’s been noticing it. You’ve been feeling down ever since-“
“Yeah. I know.” Her response was colder that time. This frustration of hers had clearly been at the
front of her mind for a while now.
“Talk to me, Lizzie. Please.” He tried once more. And this time, Lizzie caved.
“Ever since Double Life he’s been keeping his distance.” She uttered softly into her hands. “I’m
not sure why. I do have a theory, but it’s just…” she cut herself off with a groan and sunk her head
back into her folded arms.
Tango opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out.
“I told him I forgave him. For—you know. And, well… I’m not sure what else there is to do,
really.”
Lizzie finally lifted her head back up all the way. She hadn’t turned it to look at Tango, only to
face the distant wall dead ahead of her as if she were mentally somewhere else.
“Should I have said something else? Would it have been easier if I was mad at him? Is that what he
wanted from me??”
Tango’s heart hurt listening to this. He knew well enough about Lizzie’s situation. Pretty much
everyone did by now. She’d been a bystander in all this and couldn’t have done anything about it.
He didn’t blame her for being upset. She had every right to be.
By that logic, so does Scott.
The sudden understanding of this unnerved him. He now felt a bit uneasy.
No. No that was different.
But was it really?
Tango did not like the feeling of guilt that was starting to manifest in him. Was his and Scott’s
situation really so different from Lizzie’s? Tango had done exactly what Etho had: he’d taken the
partner of someone unknowingly. The only difference, in this case, was how each person had
responded to it. Lizzie had chosen to take a more peaceful route and forgive her husband, while
Scott, on the other hand, had broken things off with Jimmy in a way that had left him emotionally
damaged for months. Clearly, even a little still.
He made an attempt to shove the thought out of his head. He was suppose to be focusing on Lizzie,
after all.
He opened his mouth once more “I can’t think of an easier way for Joel to have come out of this
other than you forgiving him the way that you did.” He stated strongly. He really did believe this.
“If he’s still acting scared of you then that has nothing to do with how you responded to this
situation the first time. Honestly, if what you told Joel isn’t good enough for him, then maybe you
should just quit going so easy on him altogether.”
Lizzie sighed “Perhaps I should. But the only reason I forgave him in the first place was because I
truly believed— still believe, that this whole thing was no one’s fault.”
They both sat in silence for a moment, letting the statement sink in. Tango couldn’t help but find it
strange how forgiving the other was. He’d had to deal with more than his fair share of problems
that occurred after the last game, and in a lot of cases, he and most others had experienced a great
deal of confusion and frustration in trying to figure out who to place the blame on for their own
personal problems. But Lizzie—Lizzie had chosen to blame no one. And that was something new
entirely.
Eventually, she spoke up again. “I mean, what were we thinking?” She asked sincerely. “All
agreeing to have our minds tempered with like that not once but three times, as if they were some
toys that we could just mess with as a way of enhancing our own enjoyment.”
Tango frowned. She had a point. That was a question that him and all of the other players had been
asking themselves for six months. What were they thinking?
Tango knew the answer to that question by now. “The memory-loss implements had never done
anything other than cause new friendships and couples to form in the past.” He responded. “It was
only because of our own naiveness that we assumed it would never be the source of any pain.”
Lizzie chuckled sadly to herself. “Guess we really did pay the price for that mindset.”
Tango smirked slightly. “I guess we did…”
More silence.
“I never got to say this to you.” Lizzie started once more. “Well, never got around to saying it is
more like it.”
Tango turned his head. His friend had stopped staring at the wall and was now looking directly at
him, eyes still full of sadness.
“Tango” She spoke. “ I don’t blame Joel for anything that happened during Double Life. So it
should naturally be assumed that I don’t blame you for anything either.”
He knew what she was getting at. Even before getting together with Jimmy, he’d had at least some
knowledge on the various ties and friendships that all of the other players had with each other.
Everyone did. And after all the time he’d spent visiting Jimmy on Empires, his awareness that
Scott and Lizzie were close had all but been hammered into him.
“Liz, I’m not asking you to forgive me for anything.”
He knew he’d hurt Scott. And through that, he’d hurt her. Even if he found himself unable to figure
out what people seemed to like about him, he was clearly still cared about by others regardless.
“I know you aren’t asking anything of me.” Lizzie responded gently. “And it’s certainly not me
you should be seeking forgiveness from anyway.”
She let that statement hang in the air for a second. Tango did not like the implications of it.
“So could I ask just one thing of you?”
He nodded his head, ready to listen. “What do you need?”
“Could you try to show just a little consideration for Scott?”
Tango made a small noise of discomfort. Lizzie went on anyway.
“I know you’re still mad at him for a lot of things…”

She could say that again. There were plenty of reasons why he hated Scott, including him making
his boyfriend cry on two separate occasions (that he knew of), or being the reason he could barely
get out of bed the first few weeks after Double Life due to how miserable he’d made him, or
calling him ‘delusional’ for daring to have any sort of strong feelings towards anyone. Seriously,
what did Jimmy ever even see in the guy to begin with? Was there ever a time when he was kind
and loving towards him? Or had he always just been the way he is now. As cold as his ice-
“…but he’s still my friend.”
Right. Lizzie.
“And he’s already been in such a bad mood lately. I wouldn’t want it to be even worse while he’s
here, in a situation he was practically forced into.”
Tango furrowed his brows. This was the second time now today that someone was asking him not
to aggravate Scott. Technically, he hadn’t failed at that yet. At least not since he’d first made the
promise to Jimmy. Scott was the one who got mad and set a building on fire over something as
stupid as how it looked.
“I’ won’t— try to mess with him. If that’s what you mean.” He said. “It probably won’t be much
effort anyway since he’s split off from our group. So, sure. I’ll do my best.”
“Thank you.” Lizzie replied. And there was another moment of silence between them.
“I also wanted to mention that-“ Lizzie paused, looking as though she was second guessing what
she was about to say before continuing anyway. “-well, this might be an awkward thing to bring
up, but, I really am sorry about Imp-“
“Don’t.” Tango cut her off quickly, immediately regretting the sharpness of his tone. “I’m so
sorry.” He tried to correct himself. “I just- I’m not ready to talk about it with other people—is all.”
Lizzie nodded. “I understand.”
Nope. Not ready, and probably never will be.

“And besides,” He said, quickly changing the subject. “this is about you. Tell me more about what
Joel’s been doing.”
She sighed.
“Well, same as I said. He never wants to go anywhere or do anything with me. He’s been distant,
always making up some excuse that he already made plans with someone else, or he has to finish
up a build he’s been working on. It’s maddening trying to get him alone and whenever I do he acts
like I’m diseased. Won’t go near me or anything.”
Lizzie hugged herself tightly, looking uneasy by what she was recalling.
“I don’t know if he still thinks I’m mad at him, if he’s afraid that I’m just faking my forgiveness
and expects me to snap at him at any moment, if he’s trying to give me space that I never asked for
— Or…” Lizzie hesitated on that last part.
“Or..?” Tango spoke back.
Lizzie only shrunk closer into herself, remaining quiet.
Tango didn’t want to push it. “Well, you have at least tried asking him about it? Haven’t you?”
Another pause.
“… I haven’t.”
“Why not?”
The other swallowed, lowering her head.
“I’m afraid that I’m gonna be right about my other theory.” She muttered darkly. “The worst one.”
What did she suspect? Could it have been any of the reasons she’d already stated? It couldn’t be
that Joel hated her. That’d just be ridiculous. The man was so cheery during the games and seemed
incapable of hating anyone to a serious extent, let alone his own wife. From what Tango had
witnessed during the events proceeding Double Life, it didn’t even seem like he could bring
himself to hate Etho.
Wait.
“Lizzie—“ His eyes widened at his realization. “ no -“
“I think he’s still in love with Etho.” She finished the thought for him, confirming his assumption.
Tango cringed. It wasn’t impossible, and Lizzie definitely knew Joel’s tendencies better than he
did, so her prediction would likely be the most accurate out of anyone’s. If it were true however, it
would be… quite the disastrous situation, to say the least. He hoped for both their sakes that it
wasn’t.
“I’ve spoken to almost everyone else that was close with them during Double Life.” She continued.
“If what they’re saying is true, then their relationship was a lot more than Joel was letting on
about.”
She might have been right with that one. Joel did anything and everything for Etho during that
game, including nearly burning down the whole server. Not to mention their chemistry was beyond
great, always acting as if they’d known each other their whole lives.
“But of course, the fact that he hasn’t gone and run off with him at least proves that he still cares
about me as well.”
Tango frowned. Lizzie didn’t deserve any of this.
So what did that say about Scott?
“I’m stuck, Tango.” She said, pulling the blaze hybrid from his train of thought once more. “For
the first time ever I don’t know what to do. I’m too scared to confront him, but it’s not as though I
can just go on living like this…”
He let out a breath. He knew she didn’t want to hear this, but he said it anyway.
“Well, you do need to talk to him eventually. Cause from what it seems like to me, he’s definitely
not going to be the one who approaches you first about this.”
Lizzie pinched the bridge of her nose, looking frustrated with herself. “I know that .” She re-
emphasized I’ve just been putting it off.”
That, he could understand. Especially at a time like this. There was so much that was left unsaid
and undone between all of the players. Wounds from Double Life still existing between other
participants that had yet to even begin healing despite the six month time gap. They’d put on their
masks and smiled, that’s for sure, continuing to remain friendly between the players that they
didn’t have issues with. But Tango was only now beginning to realize just how many people
probably still had unresolved baggage from the last game. It was only now that these festering
tensions would be resurfacing. Only at a time like this when they were all pushed together once
more to participate in the very game that caused such problems to begin with. For most players,
especially those from differing home servers, if ever there was a time to make amends, it was
probably going to be now, or never.
Now—or never…
“Give yourself a deadline then.” Tango suggested, the idea suddenly coming to him.
“What?”
“A deadline. It works for all sorts of things. He restated. “Do x thing before x day or else
something bad will happen.”
Lizzie paused. “That sounds ridiculous.” She stated bluntly.
“Well, so does procrastinating on something like this!”

It felt somewhat wrong to label her actions as procrastination. The burden of figuring all this out
shouldn’t have to fall on her shoulders, but that was unfortunately the way things were. Unless
Lizzie was alright with Tango walking back out there, dragging in her husband by the hair, and
demanding answers from him himself.
Lizzie put a hand to her mouth, her eyes darting back and forth on the floor. She seemed to be
weighing her options. Not that she had many.
“How about this, to add some weight to it, let’s have me be the bad thing.” Tango added.
“You?”
“Yeah sure, why not? Who better than your own brother in-law?”
Tango recalled what Jimmy had told him regarding his last season of Empires and how him and
Lizzie had pretended to be siblings during it. The roleplay aspect of their home server was much
stronger back when the bonds in their friend group had been healthier. Although neither them being
siblings nor Tango being married to Jimmy held true, he still liked to poke fun at the whole
concept of it from time to time.
“You’re not really my- oh my god…” Lizzie was now grinning, trying to stifle a series of giggles.
Tango was pleased to have put her in a slightly better mood.
“If you don’t confront Joel about Etho and have a serious talk with him about everything then I’ll
come to kill you.”
“Till I’m past red?” Lizzie quirked an eyebrow, still grinning.
“Oh definitely.” Tango replied, grinning back. “Otherwise, there’s no real threat. In fact, let’s make
that the deadline. Talk to Joel before you reach red or else I’ll come to take your final life and
knock you out of the game for good.”
“That’s assuming you’re also on red by then-“

“We can cross that bridge once we get to it.”
“-And that you don’t just end up killing Joel or Pearl in the process instead of me-“
“Well what’s the fun in any of this if there no risk, right?”
The two of them were now smiling brightly. Neither of them having any idea if the other was
seriously considering this or not.
Regardless, Tango continued on with his pitch. “And besides, I wont even have to kill you since
you’ll for sure beat the deadline, right?”
Lizzie ran a hand through her hair, now looking much more relaxed. “Right. Okay.” She smirked.
“Why not then? Worst thing that happens will just be that I lose the game.”
And that she’d be unable to resolve anything with Joel. But he held off on saying that, instead,
sticking his hand out for her to take. “It’s a deal.” He said, as the two of them shook on it.
It was sealed now. Lizzie had given Tango full permission to come after her should she fail to meet
her provided deadline. If worse came to worse, he would be the reason she lost Trust Life. For the
sake of her and Joel’s relationship, he really hoped it didn’t come to that.
As funny as that would be.
Tango kept his hand held to Lizzie’s and stood up slowly, bringing her up with him.
“So,” He said, continuing to pace down the few remaining stairs. “how about those ores?”
Lizzie followed suit, now in a noticeably better mood.
They continued on with their trading in much higher spirits. He learned that Lizzie and her team
had managed to find and raid the only existing village on the server for all of its hay bails.
Meaning that they currently had more wheat than they knew what to do with. They both agreed
that a handful of wheat stacks would be a good trade for half of the unused iron that him and
Jimmy were hoarding and Tango even threw in some of the gold that they weren’t using as well.
After a short while, they made their way back up the stairs and onto the front porch. Tango was
quick to spot Joel and Jimmy still standing on the lawn. They both jumped the moment he threw
the front door open, Joel’s face in particular, looking as white as a ghost. He wondered if they
really did have something important they needed to discuss, or if Lizzie was right and Joel simply
wanted an excuse to continue avoiding her. Perhaps, it could have been both as well.
“You guys still talking, or…?” Tango said questioningly.
“No, I think we’re good now.” Jimmy answered in place of Joel, who had just started to open his
mouth before being cut off.
“Yeah, I guess we are.” He agreed hesitantly.
Lizzie started her way down the stairs. “Got a good deal for some of our food.” She smiled. She
turned back around, now facing the both of them. “Guess we should be heading off then. Don’t
want to leave Pearl all alone for longer than we already have.”
“Yeah, it was good to see you guys though.” Jimmy added. “Stay safe, all right?”
Lizzie nodded. “You too.” She then looked at Tango directly.
“Thank you. Really.”
Tango nodded and smiled. ‘Deadline.’ He mouthed subtly. And he knew she got the message when
she nodded right back.
As the couple walked away, Tango found himself unable to keep the thought of Scott out of his
mind any longer. Was he really to Scott what Etho was to Lizzie? Maybe he should try having an
actual talk with the guy for once instead of just fighting with him. Maybe the key to all this really
was just some decent, civilized communication.
Maybe, he should set a deadline for himself as well…
Blame
Chapter Summary
Scott builds his own base and finds a cow. He and Cleo have a talk. Scott takes a
closer look at a ravine he comes across.
Chapter Notes
Chapter ten babyyyy. Double digits at last!
See the end of the chapter for more notes
Looking back, Scott would admit that setting a build on fire with zero explanation as to why was a
bit on the extreme side. But it didn’t matter anymore.
What mattered now, was figuring out how he was going to survive the night now that he had no
place to live. It was only a few hours till sunset and the only item of use in Scott’s inventory was a
bed. But at least he had that much. worst comes to worse, he could always just construct a
makeshift dirt hut to shield him from mobs.
But he was far above doing that.
So, he got back to work. Chopping down trees and smelting glass, starting everything from scratch.
On the up side, constructing a home for one person was much less complicated and time
consuming than making one for three. Good riddance.
The end result wasn’t half bad. He ended up with a nice, homey cottage constructed from mainly
oak wood. Scott figured he could spare some time to decorate, seeing as this took him much less
time to build than he had estimated.
He first made a pair of shears and got to placing a set of bushes around the front entrance. He then
used his shovel to dig out a small trail leading out the back of his build and into a dense section of
the woods. He cleared out a few of the surrounding trees that were there in order to make a proper
backyard, and then decided to make it a garden instead by placing a handful of tulips around that
he had picked up while walking.
Scott took a look at his garden. He then immediately decided that he didn’t like the tulips and dug
them out before smoothing over the dirt from under them. There. Much better. They were too red
for him anyway. Maybe he’d add some lilies instead? Yeah. That sounded good.
He went out to go find some, deciding that for whatever reason that took priority above all else.
He’d started his walk out of the forest, having stumbled across a deep ravine he almost fell into
along the way. He made a mental note to take a closer look at it on his way back to see if there
were any ores left in it. Eventually, he was able to make his way past the forest and out into a
clearing when he saw a single cow off in the distance.
Come to think of it, it had been the only livestock he’d seen since nearly the start of the game. But
that’s to be expected. The animals were always picked off swiftly within the first day. He figured
it’d be wise to take this one back with him rather than kill it off for more meat and leather. Maybe
he’d be able to start a monopoly on those items if no one else had claimed two cows by now?
A sudden memory flashed through his mind. Him and Jimmy were both trying to heard their only
cow into the side of a wall so as to hide it from everyone else. Jimmy had just thoughtlessly
announced to the entire server that they had one of the only cows left. They were both laughing the
entire time they were trying to hide it. One would try to shush the other into silence only for it to be
broken after just two seconds with one of them starting the contagious giggles all over again.
Scott’s grip on his tools tightened. He didn’t like remembering these things.
He tried to focus on herding the cow instead. Lacking in lead, he figured he’d have to use wheat as
a substitute. Leading any kind of animal anywhere was a boring job, but at least there was only the
one that he needed to keep track of. He made his way back through the forest and was about
halfway back home when he stumbled upon a familiar face.
Cleo had been in the middle of chopping down some trees when they both met each other’s gaze.
Scott would be lying if he said she wasn’t a sight for sore eyes.
Cleo made her axe vanish and started walking towards the other.
“Scott!” She said gleefully. “I havent seen you all session! How’s it been?”
Scott worked his way forward as well, meeting the other in the middle for a quick embrace. “Well,
if I’m being honest, things have been a bit…”
“Shit?” She finished for him, quirking an eyebrow.
“Shit.” Scott agreed immediately.
Cleo sighed, her face dropping. “I really am sorry about all this-“
“Girl, don’t you even get started.” Scott waved a hand, making a gesture of nonchalantness. “I
chose to be here same as everyone else. The whole twist concept to the game along with those bs
‘randomly chosen’ groups had nothing to do with you.”
Cleo smiled, eyes still somewhat sad.
Scott tried to change the subject. “Besides,” He started. “Things have been turning up for me ever
since I left my group.” He held up the stack of wheat he was holding. “I was able to build my own
house. Plus, I found a cow!”
Cleo smirked. “It appears you have…” She said, drawing out every word with a suspiciously
ominous voice.
The other narrowed his eyes and grinned back. “What’s that tone suppose to mean?”
“Oh nothing—nothing. It’s just—I do believe that might have been one of my cows.”
Scott looked surprised. “Oh really?”
“Really.” Cleo mimicked back. “You see, I was just leading a group of them through the planes and
towards the beach where I set up base. But one of them fell into a ditch and I felt as though it’d be
too much effort to head down and grab it. So, I just continued on my way with the three that I had
left.”
Scott lowered the wheat. The cow still followed it with its eyes.
“Must have found its own way out.” Cleo finished, still smirking.
“Well, finders keepers.” Scott shot back.
“Or…” Cleo paused for effect. “I could just kill the cow that you have right now and maintain my
current monopoly.” The way she spoke made it seem as though she was trying to hide her threat
under a layer of politeness.
“I suppose you could…” Scott answered back, tone equal in fake niceness.
The two simply stared at each other in silence for a moment before both started snickering and
eventually broke out in laughter. Cleo was the first to catch her breath after a few seconds, sighing
cheerily.
The pair had known each other well enough to figure that neither had been serious about anything.
“I suppose I could let you keep this one.” She went on. “I’m not even entirely sure if I have a
monopoly anyway. Think I might have seen Ren dragging one back with him earlier today.”
Scott agreed. “Yeah, I figured the odds of anyone stealing all the remaining livestock was gonna be
low. But what are you gonna do, right? Keeping a steady monopoly during these games has proven
to be nearly impossible.”
Cleo crossed her arms. “Yeah, that’s true. No one’s creating any kind of successful business unless
they have something truly rare. And every last bit of it at that.”
Scott hummed in agreement. But his smile dropped upon seeing his friend’s expression suddenly
turn into that of a more upset one.
“Besides,” She continued slowly. “I figure letting you get away with this one thing could serve as
at least some form of retribution for pulling you into all this.”
Scott shook his head. He knew that Cleo was going to continue to insist on holding the
unfortunateness of his entire situation against herself, and he wasn’t going to stand for it. “Cleo,
seriously, I already told you I don’t blame you for-“
“But I blame myself.” She said with finality. And the two fell back into silence.
When Cleo eventually spoke again, her words made Scott flinch.
“Why… haven’t you left yet?” She asked, face now looking slightly puzzled.
“Excuse me?”
She went on. “Why haven’t you—you know, drowned yourself? Or maybe stayed in the lava for a
bit longer during that first incident?”
Ah. Now he understood what she was getting at.
“Why haven’t you left? There’s no rule against it. Killing yourself.”
Scott bit his lip, eyes trained on the ground. “I owed Grian a favor.” He said hesitantly. It was
partly the truth, after all.
But Cleo wasn’t budging. “You know as well as I do that this goes way beyond a favor.” She stated
bluntly.
“Well I’m also here for Pearl-“
“And I’m sure she would have been completely fine with you leaving the moment Grian finished
going over the rules. As would I.”
Cleo was running him into a corner. Why was she suddenly being so invasive? Was it really so
important for her to know why he’d chosen to stay? In all fairness, he figured he’d want to know as
well if he were in her position. Hell, he kind of already was. Why did he want to stay? He’d
certainly had a reason in the beginning. Why was he putting up with all of this when he didn’t need
to?
“I-“ Scott tried to come up with something else. But Cleo beat him to it.
“Is this about Jimmy?” She asked. Scott shuddered to think about what she might have been
implying.
He swallowed a lump in his throat, continuing. “For me to leave…” He stated hesitantly. “I’d have
to phantom-die enough times to kill off my teammates first. And they want to stay in the game.”
He took in a breath. It was a reasonable explanation. Most people would have come to the same
conclusion and have stopped asking there.
But Cleo wasn’t most people.
“It just wouldn’t be fair.” Scott finished. Hoping she’d finally just give this up.
She didn’t.
“To who? To Tango?” Cleo asked. “I thought you couldn’t care less about what happens to him? I
thought you hated him??”
Of course he did. She knew that. What was she even going on about?
“It’s not him I’m worried about-!” Scott blurted out before quickly stopping himself.
There it was. She’d gotten him.
He really didn’t feel like explaining to his friend why he still cared so much about Jimmy. He
didn’t owe that to anyone.
“Are you just here to grill me?” He asked frustratedly. “Be my therapist or something??”
He hadn’t meant his next words to come out so harshly, but they did anyway.
“I thought you said you felt sorry?” Scott said darkly. Cleo’s neutral expression didn’t change, and
he’d felt a little grateful for that.
“It is precisely because I feel sorry for putting you here that I feel as though I should be helping
you as much as possible.”
She took a step forward, eyes still locked on his and now filled with an odd look of determination.
“I’d hate to start sounding like Grian, but seeing as you’ve clearly made no plans to leave the game
any time soon, perhaps—if ever there was a time to do it—your circumstances right now would
serve as a good opportunity to try and make amends with Jimmy.”
Scott looked at her like she had three heads. Well, she technically had dozens of them in the form
of snake hair. But that was besides the point. Cleo could have said a lot of things to him in that
moment, but he wasn’t expecting that.
“Just- hear me out. Okay?”
Fine. She’d managed to get him this far into the conversation. He figured he’d listen.
“After this game is over, regardless of how it ends, you two are still going to be coming back home
to the same server and are going to continue living together for goodness knows how long.”
Scott groaned. “Cleo…”
“Either you make your peace with him now, or later. But in a situation where you not only share a
home server but a friend group as well, it’s not a matter of if, but of when.”
Scott furrowed his brows.
“Believe me.”
He let out a long sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers. Had every one of his friends
collectively forgotten to take their sane pills this morning? Or had he just been hallucinating the
words that have been coming out of their mouths due to his own lack of sleep? First, Grian had
forced them all together with this team system he’s created. Then, Jimmy asks him to try to get
along with the person he hates the most, and now, one of the last people on this server whom he
thought he could trust was insisting that he make up with his ex entirely.
He’d say this whole experience was starting to get a little too personal for his liking, but it had
already reached that point ages ago.
Scott looked back up at Cleo, meeting her eyes once more, and it was only then that he started
considering the weight of her words.
Maybe, she wasn’t completely wrong here. Him and Jimmy had been part of the same friend group
for ages. They’d been friends way before they’d ever been lovers. Like it or not, Jimmy wasn’t
leaving his life anytime soon, and neither was Scott leaving his.
Was that even what he wanted at all?
“If I cross paths with him again-“
“When.”
“When—I cross paths with him again-“He took a short pause, trying to think up something that
wasn’t too extreme. “I’ll ask him if he needs anything, alright?”
His friend smiled softly at him, seemingly satisfied with that answer.
“Alright.” She said, and went to summon her axe once more. “It’s a step in the right direction,
really.”
Scott still looked at her skeptically.
“You know I wouldn’t be asking this of you if I didn’t truly believe that it would do you some
good. In the long run, at least.”
He dropped the look and nodded.
He really hoped he didn’t run into Jimmy any time soon.
There was another beat of silence between them before Cleo spoke once more. “Well, I guess I’ll
let you get back to that then.” She said, gesturing to the cow Scott had close to him, who’s eyes
were still intensely trained on the wheat he was holding.
Scott waved the wheat bundle at her. “You as well.”
Cleo waved him off and he turned back around, shoving his way past a particularly thick bundle of
trees that he was half certain wasn’t there during his venture out of the woods.
But he paid it no mind.
He was more so lost in thought. Like it or not, Cleo did have a point. What was he even going to
say if he ran into Jimmy again during this game? What about when they got back home? Would he
just keep having to awkwardly share a server with him until the end of time? It was maddening to
think about. He really had no idea what his long-term plan was for any this-
“Oh shit—wait-!” Scott’s thoughts came to a halt upon hearing his friend yell from across the
woods. He looked behind him and saw Cleo quickly turn back around to run to him, but it was
already too late.
Scott stumbled his way past the thicket of plants and proceeded to step directly on to thin air. He
let out a yelp as the rest of his body quickly followed.
He fell face-first into the ravine, wheat still in hand.
Smajor1995 fell from a high place
Chapter End Notes
Fs in the chat for Jimmy…
Scott - Green
Jimmy - Red
Tango - Green
Cleo - Green
Bdubs - Green
Etho - Green
Grian - Green
Scar - Green
Bigb - Green
Ren - Green
Martyn - Green
Impulse - Green
Pearl - Green
Joel - Green
Lizzie - Green
First To Red
Chapter Summary
Jimmy tries to cope with being a red life. Him and Tango search for Scott. They run
into Cleo.
Chapter Notes
Happy spooky season!! I hope each of you are reading this while sipping on a mug full
of your favorite cozy drink
Jimmy woke up in bed with a shriek. His breathing had picked up noticeably and he made an
attempt to slow it down. It took him a second to realize what had happened. And when he did, he
was furious.
It had been no more than thirty minutes since he’d had his talk with Joel. Luckily—well, lucky
aside from his current situation—him and Tango had still been in their house when this happened
and weren’t anywhere inconvenient. He’d simply vanished from the living room of their decoy
base to the bedroom of their interior one.
He checked his comm, hoping it wasn’t true, but it was. Scott had phantom died yet again. And he
had been the one to take the hit yet again!
The chat was going wild over this.
<InTheLittleWood> No way
<InTheLittleWood> No wayyyyy!!!
<ImpulseSV> Oh for the love of-
<ImpulseSV> I owe Pearl sooo much money :(

<Etho> The one time Jimmy manages to keep himself out of danger for this long and he’s first to
reach red anyway
<Etho> The man really is cursed
<InTheLittleWood> Scott’s got a lot of explaining to do…
<ZombieCleo> Scotttt!!
<ZombieCleo> I’m so sorry!!!
<ZombieCleo> I’d meant to prank someone else with that hidden ravine
<ZombieCleo> It wasn’t meant for you I swear!
<Smajor1995> …
<ZombieCleo> :((((
<bigbst4tz2> Mind telling us who it was meant for then, Cleo?
<ZombieCleo> …
<Grian> This has for sure got to be a new record for quickest player to reach red
Grian was right. Not a single player had ever in any game reached their red life within the first day.
But given Jimmy’s luck, he figured that if any player were to accomplish such a feat, it would be
him.
At first, he’d figured in all certainty that Scott had just gone off the deep end (both literally and
metaphorically) and jumped off the side of a ravine on purpose, possibly hoping to knock out
Tango in the process.
But Cleo’s panic had seemed fairly genuine. And her apology sincere.
He guessed he really did just have rotten luck when it came to these games.
Just as he was starting to feel even more sorry for himself, Tango swung open the door, bringing
all of his thoughts to a halt.
“THAT BASTARD —“
“Tango—“ Jimmy said gently, his anger now having cooled. “It’s okay. I’m fine. It was an
accident. It was just back luck it was me.”
The canary gripped at the sheets from under him and signed. “It always is.”
Tango didn’t look as though he wanted to hear it. The man had literal smoke coming out of his
ears.
“I’m gonna hunt down that blue-haired son of a bitch and-“
“And what?” Jimmy asked bluntly. “And kill him?”
Tango seethed. “I’ll burn his house down…”
“We don’t even know where he’s decided to live.” Jimmy rested his chin to his hand in thought.
“Or if his place is even flammable…”
“Then we’ll find him. We’ll find him and make him pay.”
Jimmy sighed. “Tango, love, seriously. Have you read through the chat yet? This whole thing
seems as cut and dry an accident as can be. Cleo set up a trap and Scott ended up being the
unfortunate soul that fell into it. That’s all there is to it.”
He watched as Tango’s on-fire hair went out a little bit. He was calming down. Thank goodness.
“But I do agree that we should go and find him. It’s unfair that he’s refusing to let us keep tabs on
him when it’s our lives he’s putting at risk.”
He threw the blanket off of his legs and got out of the bed. As much as he dreaded seeing his ex
again, there was no way he was making it past the first day at this rate unless he started taking
matters into his own hands. C’mon. Let’s go hunt him down, or whatever.”
As soon as Jimmy stood, Tango reached out to cup his face in both his hands. He looked deep into
his eyes, making the other blush. He’d do this quite often, but Jimmy didn’t mind. He actually
found it rather cute how, from this distance, he was able to clearly see the other’s pupils.
It wasn’t much of a secret. Everyone close to Tango knew that his netherborn traits made his pupils
prone to enlarging like that of a cat’s. He remembered him saying it had something to do with how
nether creatures had evolved to have large eyes to help them see in the dark since the nether was a
naturally dim place. Normally, Tango’s pupils would blow out of proportion at times when he got
excited, or relaxed—
—Or, when he was looking directly at something he loved very much.
Jimmy absolutely adored this particular trait his partner had. It was always nice to know he was
loved. With some people, one might have their doubts, or would be stuck always wondering,
always being paranoid that their partner might be falling out of love with them. But with Tango, he
never had to guess. He’d always know for certain that the other was infatuated with him whenever
his pupils dilated.
“Damn it. They really are red, aren’t they?” Tango muttered frustratedly, breaking Jimmy out of
his flushed daze.
The canary chuckled. “Yeah, it sucks. But I’ll be alright for now.” He took Tango’s hand in his
own, giving it a comforting squeeze before walking them both out of the house. “Besides, I don’t
think the urge to start killing people will become intense enough for me to act on it until at least
four hours in. So we’ve got a while before things start getting hectic.”
He took a step out into the front porch, making sure to collect all of the stuff he dropped on his way
out. Tango closed the door behind the both of them.
“Jeez, I completely forgot you’re gonna start having to kill people real soon.” The other said
worriedly. “Who’re we even going to go after?”
Jimmy shrugged. “I think the obvious answer there would be Grian.”
Tango quirked his head slightly. “You mean we should try to kill Grian via his teammates or we
should go after Grian directly?”
“Actually, I say we go after him directly. Not only would it be equally helpful to get his teammates
on red, but I also get the feeling he wouldn’t be able to put up much of a fight against me.”
“Why’s that?” Tango asked, then quickly made a face and held a hand up in defense. “Not that I’m
doubting your pvp or anything-“
“Pffff— please . I absolutely doubt my pvp. But that’s not why I think I’d be able to beat him.”
Jimmy grinned and began to explain. “He’s clearly put us all in this game with the intention of
having us make amends with each other. That much is clear just from the way he’s grouped us up.
So I think he’d be very hesitant to kill me for good since dying this early would prevent me from
doing what he wants.”
Tango’s grip on his hand tightened. “Which is making up with Scott?” He grit.
Jimmy sighed. “Well, yes. That seems to be what he wants us to get out of this. Same with every
other player who never forgave their…” He tightened his own hand right back, tensing up.
“partners…” He finished warily.
They continued their walk in silence for a while. Jimmy enjoyed how comfortable they had gotten
with each other, even during the quieter times that most others might find awkward.
It was only when they’d crossed into the plains biome close to spawn that Tango spoke once more.
“Do you think… Grian blames himself for all this?”
Jimmy stopped in his tracks, expression turning grim. He wasn’t expecting Tango to throw a
question like that into the air. He’d be lying if he’d said the subject never crossed his mind. He
didn’t blame Grian for anything. In fact, he was certain that most of the other players didn’t either.
They’d all consented to these games knowing full well what was going to happen. A good number
of players had even encouraged the idea of memory alterations after Grian had lightly sprung it up
as a suggestion during an earlier MCC. They’d all had a hand in this. They’d all played a part in
fracturing their friend group in ways beyond repair. Grian was just as blind as the rest of them
were.
That was why, even after the previous Life game, Jimmy had still considered Grian a good friend
of his, and a fairly old one at that. He’d like to think that he was good at being able to tell what his
friend was thinking after all this time. But for the first time in years, he truly didn’t know. One
thing was for certain, if Grian really did secretly blame himself for everything that happened with
Double Life, then he was doing a damn good job of hiding it.
Jimmy opened his mouth to tell Tango that he really didn’t know for sure, but flinched upon
hearing another voice.
“Oh my god- Jimmy!!” Cleo yelled, rushing over to them frantically. She didn’t seem scared,
despite Jimmy now being a red life. In fact, she ran up to him directly with zero hesitation.
“I am so sorry Jimmy, really!” She ran a hand through her hair, gripping it tightly. “I had this idea
for a prank- and it was really simple too—I just threw up a bunch of trees and tall grass to hide
most of the ravine hoping it would cause people to fall in accidentally. I saw Grian set up base
close to this area so I was trying to get him or one of his teammates. I- I didn’t even think it would
work! It was just a quick thing I threw together on a whim- it wasn’t intended for Scott! I—
goodness, I’m just so sorry-!”
Jimmy’s eyes widened at the overflow of information. He held both his hands up in an attempt to
silence his friend.
“Cleo—really, it’s fine!” He said. “I know this was an accident. And besides, this is all pretty
routine by now, yeah?”
He let out a sigh and Cleo’s face dropped even more. “I was going to be the first one out of the
game anyway. It’s always what happens…”
“Jimmy-“ Tango started.
“What?” Jimmy asked. “We all knew it was gonna happen. Everyone’s well aware by now that I’m
cursed!”
“That’s not true-“
“I’ll believe it isn’t once I’m not the first to die for once.” The canary scoffed. “But so far, that has
yet to happen!”
He crossed his arms over his chest, hugging himself tightly while glaring at the ground in despair.
“And it sucks—really. You guys talk about all the cool stuff that ends up happening once more
than a handful of players turn to red. It’s always right after I die that things really start getting
interesting, and I never get to be around for any of it!”
He tensed up even more, a sad smile creeping up his face.
“Canary in a coal mine.” Jimmy chuckled bleakly. “How fitting…”
There was a pause.
“Is that why you came back?” Cleo asked hesitantly.
He looked up, expression unchanging. “Well, that’s one reason, yeah.” He signed. “I wanted to get
in at least one last go at this whole thing. Figured I should take another shot at making it to the end
before we all inevitably end these games for good.”
Tango furrowed his brows. “Grian—wouldn’t do that. Would he?”
“It’s not up to him.” Jimmy responded. “It’s up to the players. And after all of the forced social
awkwardness that’s been brought about by this session, I think it’s only a matter of time.”
Cleo put a hand to her chin, pondering. “Why did everyone else come back?”
“I mean, I know why I came back.” Tango responded. “This game was how I ended up with
Jimmy. So, obviously, I’ve got a lot of good memories tied to it.”
Jimmy blushed and smiled ever so slightly. He could certainly say the same about Tango. Simply
participating in the game did bring back a feeling of nostalgia, along with an abundance of good
memories.
“Plus, any game based on survival and violence is really freakin fun for me.” Tango smirked.
“I’ll cheers to that!” Cleo said with enthusiasm, making her own reason for coming back quite
obvious to the other two.
“It certainly is a fun game.” Jimmy went on. “But there’s no way that alone was enough to get
pretty much everyone back. Especially after all of the drama that the last game created.”
Tango nodded. “Hey, come to think of it, we were just talking to Joel and Lizzie and I never
bothered to ask either of them why exactly they returned.”
He turned to his boyfriend. “Angel? Did Joel end up telling you anything? Or-?”
Jimmy flinched. Oh god, did he tell him everything. Etho. He’d come back to see Etho. But Joel
had trusted him to keep that secret. And there was no way he’d betray him, not after he’d finally
decided that he trusted him enough to open up.
“Nope!” Jimmy blurted out a bit too quickly, his whole body tensing up. “Didn’t say a thing!!”
Tango narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Riiiight…” He said, clearly not buying a word of that, but
thankfully, deciding not to press any further.
“Well, I’m sure everyone has their reasons.” Cleo chimed in. “People are very complicated beings.
Double Life—unfortunately—taught me that more than anything.”
If that wasn’t the shitty truth.
Jimmy couldn’t help but internally laugh at how similar this whole thing was. It was those pairings
in Double Life that had made everything so complicated. And now, for some reason, Grian had
apparently figured that grouping people up once more would be the solution. He wondered what
would of happened had he been partnered with Scott during that game like he was during this one.
Maybe, they would have been happy. Maybe they would have fallen in love all over again and have
come out of that game closer than ever.
But that didn’t happen. Instead, Scott had opted to stick with Cleo, while Jimmy had been paired
with Tango. Completely at random. And that—changed everything.
But he wouldn’t have changed a thing about that outcome for the world.
The canary halted his thoughts and looked back up at Cleo, suddenly remembering what they were
here for.
“Uh, Scott isn’t still with you, is he?” He asked.
Cleo made a grimace and sharply inhaled through her teeth. “No…” She answered timidly. “I tried
to talk to him, but he just climbed out of the ravine, and walked away. Didn’t respond to me at all.”
She rubbed at her shoulder and sighed. “I think he’s mad at me.”
Jimmy tried to give her a reassuring look as he shook his head. “I wouldn’t worry too much about
that. I think he’s just mad at himself.”
“I’d be too if I fell for one of the oldest tricks in the book like he did.” Tango shrugged.
Jimmy shot him a look and ignored the comment. “Any idea where he might have gone off to?”
“Yeah, actually. He mentioned something to me earlier about having built his house out in the
woods.” Cleo threw a thumb back, gesturing at the forest behind her. It’s a pretty big biome and I
don’t know exactly where he is, but I figure you’ll be able to find his base in there if you just walk
around for a bit.”
Jimmy nodded, took Tango’s hand back in his, and began walking off. “Right. Thanks a bunch
Cleo.”
“It’s no problem.” She responded. “And again, I really am sor-“
“Seriously! It’s fine!!”
Well, he wouldn’t say it was fine , but he certainly didn’t blame Cleo for anything.
“Just watch out for the ravine!” She yelled as they left.
“Got it!” Jimmy yelled back.
And off they went.

Promise
Chapter Summary
Jimmy and Tango find Scott. He has a few unexpected words to say. Tango makes a
promise.
Chapter Notes
<bigbst4tz2> fell from a high place
<GoodTimesWithScar> died
The death messages sounded off on both their comms clear as day. Tango couldn’t help the wide
grin that spread across his face upon seeing it.
<InTheLittleWood> Another one bites the dust!!
<LDShadowLady> Oh wow. I wonder how that one happened
<Pearlescentmoon> Scar dead this early? Some things never change
<Tango> AAAAAAA HA HA HA HAAAAA-
Tango needed to get that out of his system. It may not have been Grian who ended up dying, but
the death of either of his teammates would still bring them one step closer to getting rid of him for
good. Even if Scar wasn’t the first among Grian’s team to die, getting them down to two people
would make any sort of strategy for killing him a lot more easier and a hell of a lot more
predictable.
He turned his gaze up from his comm to look at Jimmy, who had also had his eyes glued to the
death messages. His comm pinged once more, most likely with the chat message Tango had just
sent. Jimmy immediately looked up and turned his head to face him, shooting him a dull
expression.
“Really?” He said plainly.
“What?” Tango perked. “If I wasn’t gonna poke fun at them for it someone else would’ve.”
His boyfriend rolled his eyes. “Okay, we’ll maybe don’t aggravate their team so much that you
become a target for them, alright?”
Tango winced. “Ah, yeah. Maybe I shouldn’t be doing be that...” He couldn’t argue with that logic.
It had been nearly fifteen minutes since they’d ventured out into the woods and their third
teammate was still nowhere to be seen. At the start of their search, Tango had suggested that
maybe they should just message him on his comm and ask where he is. He figured it couldn’t hurt,
even if it was very unlikely they’d get a reply. But Jimmy had been the one to bring up how that
would tip Scott off right away that they were looking for him, and that might prompt him to make
a run for it just to avoid them. Tango ended up agreeing on that point. And so, they figured they’d
just have to sneak up on him when the time came.
“You’d think it’d be easy finding someone so blue when they’re surrounded by so much green.”
Tango said, looking up at the trees.
“Yeah, well, Scott’s pretty good at hiding when he doesn’t want to be found.” Jimmy replied, still
looking around. “Pretty good at ignoring people too.” He finished bitterly.
Tango brushed off that last comment. He figured by the tone of it that Jimmy wasn’t looking to
open anything up with that statement.
They’d just made it over the now infamous ravine, so wherever Scott settled couldn’t be too far
away. Tango continued on walking before feeling a tug at his arm. He turned around to see Jimmy,
who had stopped in his tracks, looking over to his right between the trees.
“Wait- I think that’s it!” He said gleefully. He made a motion to go over to the build, but Tango
gently grabbed him by the shoulder.
“Wait.” He said cautiously. “It could be Grian’s place, remember? Cleo said he set up his base in
the same forest.”
The other turned to look at him, and then looked back at the build. It was then that Tango had
started observing it as well. It looked to be a cozy cabin made of oak, something that stuck out
when surrounded by all the dark oak trees.
“No,” His boyfriend said. “That’s definitely his.”
Tango quirked his head. “How can you tell?”
“I just… Can.”
Tango was still skeptical. But if Jimmy thought it looked like something Scott would build, then
he figured that’s what it must have been.
“Alright then.” He said steadily. “If you’re really sure.”
They both made a move towards the cabin. Jimmy was the first to reach the door and knock. They
waited for an answer. All the while, Tango kept observing the build. He noticed there were no
flowers on it anywhere, something he was aware to be one of Scott’s trademarks. Although if the
events of earlier that day were anything to go by, Scott had probably developed a recent hatred of
them.
For whatever reason…
They waited in silence. But nothing happened.
“Maybe he’s not ho-“ Jimmy started. But before he could finish, Tango had already stepped ahead
and began banging his fist on the door.
“Smajor, seriously! If you expect to just be left alone after the stunt you pulled, you’re crazy!”
Jimmy had his head in his hand. “Well if he didn’t answer the first time he’s certainly not going to
answer to you yelling.”
Maybe he was right. Although, if Tango had had things his way, he would have just set the house
on fire. But he was suppose to be getting along with Scott, or at least trying to. So for him, this was
his version of calm.
“Oh for the love of-“ He took out his axe, his boyfriend’s eyes going big. Just as he was about to
break down the door it flung open and his axe stopped right in front of Scott’s face, having nearly
hit him dead on.
“ Jesus!! ” Scott yelled, grabbing the axe and pushing it to the side. “I was just taking a nap and
you’re gonna kill me over it??”
Tango put his axe away, blushing slightly. Maybe he had been a little too impatient. He eyed
Scott’s face, which for some reason, looked a lot more restless now than before. He figured crash
landing into a ravine unexpectedly would understandably put someone on high alert, on top of
having just been loudly woken up from sleep of course. But still, he couldn’t help but wonder if he
looked like this for another reason.
Scott looked over Tango’s shoulder at Jimmy, and then back at him. He rolled his eyes and walked
back into the house, leaving the door wide open, which Tango assumed was a gesture for them to
come inside.
The two stepped past the door, with Jimmy closing it behind them. Now inside, Tango was able to
take in just how nice this place looked. Tall windows lined the front and back walls, a few rows of
white wool carpeted some of the floor, and there was a finished kitchen right by the entrance with a
table. Scott sat down at it and put his head in his hands.
They both just stood there, not sure what to do. In all honesty, Tango didn’t think they’d even get
this far. At least, not this quickly. He’d expected to have to chase after the guy and tackle him to
the ground before he’d even agree to speak to them at all. And yet, here they were.
There was a moment of silence between the three of them before Scott finally let out a sigh and
lifted his head up, starting off the conversation for them.
“I’m—sorry.” He said, now looking right at Jimmy.
Wow. Well, he definitely hadn’t been expecting that.
“What?” Tango heard Jimmy ask, clearly just as caught off guard as he was.
Scott continued. “I screwed up. I’ve— been screwing up for like, the entirety of this game. And—
I’m just sorry you’ve been paying the price for it.”
Tango looked at Jimmy, who’s face carried a concerned expression as he focused on Scott. As of
that moment, the blaze hybrid felt as though he’d just walked in on an intense staring match and
didn’t know what to do. That is, before Scott broke the stare to turn to him.
“I still blame you for Jimmy’s first death, of course.” He stated bitterly. “But, I shouldn’t have set
our build on fire.”
He took a pause, eyes darting back to Jimmy.
“And I shouldn’t have been so careless with my life.”
Another pause.
“And…”
Scott bit his lip. Hesitating on his next words.
And what? And he shouldn’t have yelled at Jimmy like he did? Shouldn’t have brought up all
those hateful things? Could either of them have really taken his word on that if he did say he was
sorry? It’d certainly be hard for him to believe.
“And—we should all really try to keep deaths like this from happening again in the future.”
Tango bit his tongue. Fine. So what if Scott didn’t feel like bringing that up yet? Jimmy didn’t
seem to care about that right now. So he wouldn’t either. And besides, he was still suppose to be
keeping his cool around him. So he supposed it didn’t matter what he really thought.
“If you came here expecting a fight, I’m not going to give you one.” Scott went on. “I know you’re
both angry,” He broke eye contact with Jimmy, now paying attention to Tango again. “especially
you.” He told him. “I’ll stick with you both, if that’s what you want. It’s what would have been
safer for all of us to begin with.”
Tango’s first instinct was to agree with that statement. But after a moment, he had to wonder,
would it have been? He was the one who pushed Scott into the lava that first time. Even if it was in
retaliation to the other’s own aggressiveness. In the end, he figured he really couldn’t blame Scott
for Jimmy’s first death. Shit, could he even blame him for the next one? He certainly didn’t blame
Cleo. And if his earlier talk with Lizzie had taught him anything, it was that he may or may not
have developed a habit of ignoring his own internalized double standard-ness when it came to
Scott in particular. Maybe he was just prone to hating him more because he was his boyfriend’s ex.
Or maybe he’d just been itching for someone to be angry at for all of the emotional bullshit that’d
been happening since Double Life.
He didn’t quite like thinking over this subject, but that was what his own personal deadline was for.
He still needed to talk to Scott about the breakup. Try and see things from his perspective. Maybe
it’d make himself hate the guy a little less. Not likely, but maybe. From what he’d seen, Jimmy
was clearly the one hurting the most from every instance him or Scott expressed their dislike for
each other. And if he could maybe dull that hate somehow—well, then that was a win for him, he
supposed.
He heard his boyfriend start talking again. “Scott, I’m not angry with you—“
Really? Tango found that hard to believe.
“—for getting me to red.
Ah, that made more sense. He didn’t think the other would be so quick to forget about the whole
hobbit hole fiasco. He knew he certainly wouldn’t.
Jimmy continued. “It’s not like you did it on purpose.”

He noticed the canary clench his jaw, face morphing into a spiteful grimace.
“And besides,” He muttered. “it was an inevitable outcome that I-“
“Oh come on -!” Scott yelled, now standing up from his seat.
“Not this again…” Tango said in near unison with the other. The two locked eyes at that, Tango
having found it odd, yet reassuring that they were both on the same page for once.
Scott groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. “You’re not cursed, Jimmy.”
Tango nodded his head. “You’re incredibly superstitious and have a hell of a lot of bad luck, but
you’re not cursed. And you’re gonna prove it by outlasting other players this time. I know it.
There’s no way I’m letting you die that early again.”
“Yeah.” Scott agreed. “I mean, think of how far Scar made it in Third Life while he was on his red
life for most of the game. Anything’s possible here.”
“Exactly.” Tango said. “And speaking of Scar, now that he’s on yellow, it’ll be a lot easier for us
to-“
Scott’s head whipped back at him instantly. “Wait,” He said. “Scars on yellow?”
“Uh, yeah.” Tango replied. “What? Did you not see the death message yet, or-“
“I was sleeping! Er- trying to—hang on.”
He reached into his pocket and turned on his comm, eyes widening instantaneously. “Um -
Hello??”
Tango could see his thumb scrolling through the chat vigorously.
“Oh my god, he really is.”
A wide grin spread across Scott’s face. His eyes were still locked on his comm.
“That’s just one step closer.” He muttered gleefully. “One less life to worry about for his group.”
“Uh, Scars group?” Jimmy suddenly asked.
“Grian’s!” Scott yelled back enthusiastically. “Oh he’s going down…”
Tango smirked. Scott’s reaction was much like his own the first time he became aware of Scar’s
death. “I’ve also been eager to snatch at least one life from Grian before the game is over.” Tango
commented.
“I doubt we’re the only ones who feel that way.” Jimmy said.
It was a little strange how they were all collectively pissed at Grian for putting them in a group for
this game and had no problems stating that fact, at least, in an indirect sort of way. And yet, the
anger that came about from it served as a driving force for all of them. Maybe less so for Jimmy,
he certainly didn’t seem too upset when he’d first found out about who he was teamed with in the
beginning of the game. But that was likely just his nature. The guy did have a habit of forgiving
people way too easily. He was sweet, and that was just one of the many things Tango loved about
him.
“I really am surprised he’s practically made it past the first day with all his lives intact.” Scott said,
finally looking up from his comm. “And from the looks of it, this first loss from Bigb seems like it
was an accident.”
“Hm. Yeah, maybe…” Jimmy hummed, a curious expression in his eyes.
Tango had to wonder too. Did Bigb fall out of his own clumsiness? Or did he perhaps fall into a
trap like Scott did?
Or, could he have possibly been pushed?
“Jeez, is the sun only just setting now?” Jimmy commented, looking out one of the windows.
Tango followed his gaze. The sun was indeed going down. After all the emotional whiplash that
had occurred, this day had felt like it lasted for weeks.
“It’s been a long freakin day.” Scott said tiredly.
“You can definitely say that again.” Tango replied.
“So, what’s the deal here?” They both turned to Scott, who was now leaning against the table with
his arms crossed. “Am I staying here or coming back with you? Cause like I said, I’m here to do
whatever now.”
Tango grimaced slightly. He didn’t like the way Scott phrased that. It made it sound like he was
their hostage or something.
But in a way, wasn’t that the case for all of them?
“It’ll probably be fine if you stay the night here.” Tango answered, eyeing his partner for approval.
Jimmy nodded. “Yeah, it’s not like there’s anything in your house that could kill you. Plus I’m still
the only red on the server and I’m not about to attack my own teammate.”
“Works for me.” Scott shrugged. “If that’s the case, then you should probably get going. Wouldn’t
want to have to find your way back when there’s mobs around.”
Jimmy hummed, heading towards the door. Tango followed. “We can meet back up with you here
first thing in the morning.” He said. “Figure out what we’re going to do then.”
“I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
“Yeah, we’ll see you.” Jimmy said.

He had already opened the door and was waiting on the other. Tango had gotten about halfway out
before turning his head back around, to face Scott.
He paused and thought for a moment before opening his mouth. “I-“ He started. He still needed to
talk to him. Ask him about Jimmy, explain to the other that while he still didn’t like him, he
understood much better now how upset he had made him after Double Life. He could try to make
some kind of connection between them that wasn’t resentment, one that might make him less likely
to anger around the guy.
“-Try not to phantom-die while we’re gone. Okay?” Tango’s voice had failed him. So much for
that.
Perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea to start on that kind of conversation while Jimmy was still there
anyway. But no worries, he had all session to work up to it.
Scott shot him a look. “It’ll certainly be easier without any pools of lava around.” He said bitterly.
He was clearly still mad at him for that first death. Tango got the message.
Another time, then. Definitely.
He closed the door behind him, and he and his partner began their walk back home.
It wasn’t long before they reached their base. Tango was thankful more than ever now that they
had managed to finish it before the end of the day. He opened the door to the front base, broke the
wood that hid the path to the secret base, replaced it, and entered the new room, all with Jimmy in
tow—who seemed much more exhausted than he did by how quickly he walked over to the bed
and flopped down onto it with a sigh.
Tango snickered and went to join him, making sure to actually take off some of his clothes first.
He lied down on his back and smirked at Jimmy. “Are you really planning on sleeping in your
shoes?”
Jimmy groaned and flipped himself over, sitting up groggily and kicking the articles off as though
they’d offended him. He then shrugged off his blue overshirt and once that was finally done,
flopped back down on his side, curling up against his boyfriend. Tango held him back, pulling the
blankets over them both while letting the other tuck his head under his chin.
“Hey, angel?” Tango whispered gently, worried the other might already be asleep.
“Mmh?” Jimmy groaned.
Tango decided to take that as a response. “I meant what I said earlier. I’m not letting you die first.”
Jimmy curled up closer, eyes still closed as he mumbled back. “That’s not up to you.”
The blaze hybrid frowned. “Like hell it isn’t.”
It was only then that Jimmy opened his eyes, untucking his head from under the other and shifting
to look him in the face. “Can you promise me something?”
Tango hadn’t expected him to say that. Or ask anything of him at all right now for that matter. But
he went along with it anyway. “Sure,” he said. “What do you need?”
Jimmy’s eyes were half lidded, he looked as though he was fighting to stay awake. This must have
been something important.
“If I do die first, could you…” He paused and took in a short breath. “Could you—try not worry
yourself over it?”
No, in fact. He wouldn’t.
“I won’t have to worry because that’s not gonna happen.”
Jimmy frowned. “We need to be realistic here. It’s a possibility for me just as it is for everyone
else.” He said. “Someone has to be first and it might very well be me.”
Tango felt him reach up a hand to cup his face. He leaned into it graciously.
“Just promise me, at the very least, that you won’t stop having fun because of it?”
Ah, so he was asking for the impossible then.
“I mean it.” Jimmy continued. “I know how much you love these games. Just promise me that if I
die early, you’ll keep on playing, keep on trying to win.” He carefully leaned his forehead against
Tango’s, closing his tired eyes once more. “ Please.” He whispered, more serious than ever.
“Don’t let me ruin this for you.”
“You could never ruin anything for me.” Tango breathed back. In his mind, he’d absolutely meant
that. “How about we make a bottom line for this? If, by the statistically impossible chance, you do
die first. I won’t try to murder myself over it.” He moved his arm up the other’s back and ran a
hand through his hair. “Sound good?”
Jimmy let out another hum. “Mmm—nope.” He answered bluntly, eyes still closed. “Then how do
I know you aren’t just gonna let yourself get killed, huh?” He shuffled around a bit. “Or let Scott
get killed. If he’s still around. Heh,” He laughed slightly. “the rules for this game are crazy.”
Tango hummed, making a noise of unsureness. His partner didn’t seem to like that as an answer.
“You gotta keep playing as if I never left.” The canary said sleepily, letting out a short yawn in the
process. “Gotta try and win. Just like you always do.”
He felt himself hesitate for a moment. It’d be so easy just to lie. And it’s not as though the lie
would have any sort of effect on his partner anyway since there’s no way he’d have to follow
through with it. Jimmy was going to make it. The hopeful part of him was so sure of it.
But the rational part, that side felt differently on the matter.
It was possible. No matter how hard they both tried, Jimmy dying first once more was still a solid
possibility. It’s not as though the odds were in his favor. They hadn’t been in the past and they
certainty weren’t right at this moment, with him having gotten to his red life so soon. Damn it all.
If he hadn’t been so careless as to push Scott into lava, if he had chased after him before he tried to
leave, they wouldn’t be in this situation right now.
Tango took a deep breath in. He’d made his decision: he’d keep his word. He owed his boyfriend
that much after everything that had happened.
“Okay.” He said. “If that really does happen, I’ll keep trying to win, for you .”
He waited a moment for a response, but didn’t get one. Jimmy had fallen asleep right then and
there, face at peace and body unmoving.
Tango carefully shifted his head to rest it back on top of Jimmy’s. He relaxed his body, feeling
content as he closed his own eyes.
“I promise.”
He quickly fell into a deep sleep.
Chapter End Notes
*Patiently waits to be murdered in the comments for making Scott apologize*
Scott - Green
Jimmy - Red
Tango - Green
Cleo - Green
Bdubs - Green
Etho - Green
Grian - Green
Scar - Yellow
Bigb - Green
Ren - Green
Martyn - Green
Impulse - Green
Pearl - Green
Joel - Green
Lizzie - Green
Monopoly On Murder
Chapter Summary
As Jimmy’s violent urges become stronger, him, Tango, and Scott try to figure out
who he should kill first.
Chapter Notes
“Ah! Shoot-!!” Tango yelled, while slowly backing away from a creeper. He took a swing at the
thing at full force.
“Don’t blow up my iron!” Another swing. “Do not blow up my iron!!”
From behind him, he could hear the growling of a zombie drawing nearer. Great. As if he didn’t
have enough to worry about right now.
He sent a final blow to the creeper in front of him before turning around to deal with the zombie,
noticing only now that several more were on their way.
“Nononono-“ He said, trying, and failing, to deal with all of them at once. Tango had been mining
and fighting off hoards of mobs for a while; his arms had been steadily growing tired from the
strain of holding multiple tools for so long. He didn’t think he could fight for much longer. All he
wanted was for all these mobs to die and for him to get out of there.
Then, as if the universe were cheekily telling him to be careful what he wished for, a single creeper
fell down straight from the cave ceiling and landed directly in front of him.
“WHAT THE-“ Tango yelled out of surprise. He didn’t get to finish his sentence, as the creeper
blew up both him, as well as anything that he’d been fighting off.
Tango woke with a yelp, almost tripping on his own feet and falling back down into the grass field
he now stood in. His heart was still beating rapidly and he tried to calm himself down. That’s when
he remembered, he wasn’t the only person who died from that whole ordeal. He was suppose to
have a soulmate for this game.
As soon as the realization hit him he started frantically looking around. The game had only just
started and whichever player he took down with him likely had yet to construct a bed yet same as
him. Which meant-
“Tango?”
Tango veered his head around, body following as he directed his full attention on the voice behind
him.
Jimmy. His soulmate was Jimmy.
He knew they guy’s name, along with what he looked like, seeing as they’d all spawned in at the
same location this time around. Everyone had gotten the chance to greet each other before Grian
declared the game to have officially started and they all abruptly ran off in their own directions.
Tango hadn’t been paying much attention during the beginning of the session. He remembered this
person’s name, among other players as well, and was able to tie that name to a face. But his
memories of him ended there. This guy could have been anyone to him back home. His best friend,
partner, friend of a friend—anything. Regarding Jimmy specifically, Tango had done nothing at
the beginning of the game other than give him a quick glance as he looked around spawn, same
with everyone else, his eyes skipping over him and on to the next player as if he were just another
person in the crowd.
It was only now, when it had finally sunk in for him that he was going to be sharing a health bar
with this person for the rest of the game, that he’d finally decided to take a closer look at him.
The wings were the first thing he noticed. Although, Tango couldn’t quite pin them to any type of
bird from memory just from looking at them. But they were small. Big enough to be noticeable
from a front-facing perspective, but still smaller than Grian’s and clearly too shrunken to allow
their bearer to fly. Tango had felt a tinge of sympathy for the guy at that thought. It was usually
about one in ten avians who’s wings, for whatever reason, would be stunted and never fully grow
to their intended size. So Jimmy’s, in a sense, were practically useless to him.
Another thing he noticed right away was His figure. Jimmy was somewhat well built. Certainly
more so than Tango. But he was shorter than him as well. And as for his face, it seemed to differ
much from his body. Whereas, it displayed a look of gentleness, combining a slightly disheveled
appearance with two soft brown eyes.
He also noticed that Jimmy’s mouth was moving. He was saying words.
He should probably be listening.
“What happened, Tango?” He said with a concerned look.
Tango refocused his attention on what his now apparent soulmate was saying. He remembered
where he was. He’d died. He’d died and took his soulmate with him, knocking them both down to
yellow no more than halfway through the first day.
The guilt was creeping in now. It hadn’t yet clicked for him just how much more stressful this
game was going to be now that his lives were shared with another. Did he have to be so reckless?
Was he really so careless as to throw himself into danger when he knew he’d be hurting someone
else in the process? After the first few hours had passed, it hadn’t even crossed his mind. Perhaps
it would have if Jimmy had taken some intense damage of his own to remind him that he still had a
soulmate out there who was looking for him. But no, that rarely happened, because Jimmy was
being careful. And now, thanks to Tango, it didn’t matter how careful the other was. Because of
him, they were now both on yellow.
“I’m so sorry…” Tango stated suddenly. He wasn’t sure what else he should say.
His soulmate looked at him, puzzled, then moved forward. “Hey- it’s okay. Just tell me what
happened Tango. Take me through it. What happened?”
Tango ran a hand through his already wild hair, heart still beating fast from the remaining adrenalin
in his system. “I- I don’t know… I was in a cave, and there might have been, like, seven zombies
and a spider-“
Jimmy nodded along to Tango’s frantic rambling, at one point, having to shove a way a goat that
was trying to nip at his clothes. But he continued paying attention none the less.
“That’s- I don’t know, that’s just it. I got blown up by a creeper and it came out of nowhere- and-
and now we’re here…” He clenched his fist at his side. He was probably more mad at himself than
his soulmate had thought was reasonable, but that still didn’t stop him from finishing his whole
rant off with another “I’m so sorry.”
Jimmy let out a sigh. He was gripping his chin as if pondering on what to do. They only had a
limited amount of time to get their belongings back and the clock was ticking.
“Okay.” He said, head shooting back up. “Let’s just meet up back here in a bit. I still have to go get
my stuff, so-“
Tango cut him off. “I have no idea where I was.” He said, sheepishly rubbing his shoulder.
Jimmy’s eyes widened. “ What ?”
“I just lost all my stuff. I have no idea where I was…”
The other slapped a hand to his forehead, running it down his face in a motion of frustration. “Oh.
My. goshhhh— “ He groaned.
Tango just stood there, cringing at his own recklessness.
“DUDE!” Jimmy exclaimed, throwing his arms forward. Tango was still mentally slapping
himself. It was obvious to both of them how screwed up his situation was. He’d most likely just
lost all of the things he’d managed to gather throughout the entire session. He’d just spent the
whole day piling resources and had nothing to show for it other than a yellow life.
Well, two yellow lives, technically.
He really was the worst soulmate this poor guy could have been partnered with.
What happened next was a frenzied combination of both pacing and panicking. Jimmy kept asking
Tango questions on what he remembered last and if there were any landmarks in the cave that
would help them find his things. Meanwhile, Tango couldn’t so much as remember if he had been
traveling North or South away from spawn. It was all very hectic. Not to mention anxiety inducing.
So much so in fact, that Tango couldn’t help but laugh at the whole situation.
”Pffft-look at us, we’re just- heh—just running around in circles-“
Jimmy gave him a blank stare, looking as though he were offended. “You’re laughing? Now?”
Tango choked out another laugh with a hand over his mouth, having honestly tried his best to keep
himself under control.
“Really??”
He continued trying to contain himself, but it was no use. “I’m sorry, it’s just- heh — it’s better
than freaking out.”
Jimmy’s expression didn’t change much at first, other than a slight perk at the corner of his mouth.
“You’re acting insane.” He muttered, shaking his head, having hung off a slight chuckle of his
own at the last word.
Tango smiled back. “Yeah? Heh- well, you should probably get used to insanity if you’re gonna be
partnered with me, ha ha…”
It seemed like his ludicrous reaction to the situation was finally rubbing off on the other, because it
was only mere seconds after that statement that his soulmate soon went from stern to gleeful and
eventually, into full blown hysterics along with Tango.
Maybe he’d taken his new partner’s advice and figured that laughing was better than panicking.
Maybe his mind was just reeling from having learned that he’d been paired with a crazy person and
his hardships for this game had only just begun. Maybe he genuinely did come to find the whole
situation they were in hilarious. It could have been a number of reasons as to why Jimmy started
laughing too. But Tango didn’t bother to ask, figuring that whole ordeal was his own business.
“I- I can’t even remember—hah— which direction I was going in-!” Jimmy smiled, head in his
hands.
“Oh noooo- “Tango grinned back.

They both started laughing even harder.
“Oh- oh we are soooo screwed-!”
A burst of laughter came from Jimmy’s end, which only made Tango heave even harder. He was
busy clutching his stomach while his soulmate had himself leaning against a tree in what was
probably an attempt to keep his whole body from slumping over. Tango couldn’t help but think to
himself how insane people would think they were if anyone were to walk in on them right now.
But given the circumstances, they probably would have been at least somewhat correct in their
assumptions.
This continued on for a few more moments, the two shaking and smiling where they stood. But
eventually, the laughter died down and they both managed to collect themselves steadily, their
once boisterous noises mellowing out into faint breathing.
Tango took a pause, still smiling, but in more of a nervous manner this time. “I really am sorry.”
He said once again, having finally caught his breath.
Jimmy stood up straight again, shifting the last of his giddiness out of him. “No, don’t.” He said
gently. “Don’t be sorry. It’s- it’s gonna happen…”
Tango stirred slightly, somewhat confused by what his soulmate had just said. “What’s gonna
happen?” He asked in a curious tone.
Jimmy’s smile was now fading. Tango decided that he didn’t like that very much.
“I just- I feel like I’m gonna die in the future and that you’re gonna have to take the punishment for
it.”
Tango just stared at the other, feeling all the more confused after that statement. “What makes you
say that?” He asked. “I’m clearly the more reckless person between the two of us.”
Jimmy’s eyes shot up, the feeling of confusion now apparently mutual. “You don’t-?” His
complexion suddenly mellowed out. “Ah, right. You wouldn’t remember any of that, would you?”
The blaze hybrid shrugged.
Jimmy sighed. “Yeah, that checks out. I mean, I certainly don’t remember how you died during the
last games. But I do remember how I died.” He kicked at the ground a little, slumping his
shoulders. “How about you? Can you remember anything from the other games?”
Tango put a hand to his chin, trying to recall anything in detail and failing. “It comes to me like it
would if I were reading facts in a book.” He muttered. “I know when and how I died and I know
some of the things that I did while I was there, but I can’t come up with any memories involving
two or more people. It’s always just me.”
His gaze fell flat.
“Just me and a bunch of gaps.”
Jimmy snapped his fingers. “Exactly. Just a bunch of gaps where any kind of human interaction
would be.”
“Feels weird.” Tango quipped.
“Yeah, a little. But that’s the point I guess. Can’t have our loyalties with other players be
predetermined. That would ruin the excitement of it all.”
“Yeah, I guess it would.”
There was a beat of silence. Then, Tango looked up at the other, gazing at him directly. “So, what
did you mean when you said it’s ‘gonna happen?’ What, like you’re sure you’ll die soon?”
The avian looked to the ground uncomfortably. “Yeah, from what I can remember, that’s always
the case. I’ve been the first player out on both occasions.”
Tango’s eyes went wide. The other had clearly predicted this sort of reaction from him, seeing as
his expression was unchanged. He likely assumed that Tango was internally panicking at the
prospect of being paired with the most accident prone player in the game.
But that assumption couldn’t have been farther from the truth.
“You’re telling me—that you’ve been the first player out during both sessions?”
Jimmy nodded sadly.
“And now I’ve just brought you even closer to that fate for a third time??”
His soulmate quirked his head slightly, looking confused.
Tango’s heart ached. Now he just felt even worse. No wonder this guy was being so careful with
his health. He must have been more desperate to survive than everyone else here. And now that
Tango had gone and practically cut his chances of outlasting anyone in half, all he could do was
keep insisting that his death was due to his own bad luck rather than Tango’s recklessness.
Yeah, Tango certainly wasn’t about to agree with him on that logic.
“Hey,” He said sternly. “Listen to me. This first death was no one’s fault but my own.”
Jimmy just stared at him, surprised.
“Damn it, I- I feel bad that I died but I just feel worse that I took you down with me…”
“No, no don’t be—stuff like this, it’s gonna happen all the time with me.” He responded gently.
“Death sort of just, follows me. You know?”
Tango grimaced. “No, actually. I don’t know. I don’t know at all how I can somehow get killed in
a cave and come out of it with my soulmate blaming himself.” He took a step forward, coming face
to face with the other. His next words being more serious than anything he’d said all day. “We’re
gonna get through this. Okay? You’re my soulmate now and I just cost us our first life. So even if
you do die early again in this game, at least know that it’s on me this time. You got that? It won’t
be your fault.”
He saw something flicker in the other’s eyes after saying that. He opened his mouth, seeming as
though he was about to argue on the subject once more, but then, decided to finally drop it
altogether.
“Okay.” He said calmly, easing into what Tango couldn’t help but find to be the softest smile he’d
ever seen. “Let’s do our best then, yeah?”
Tango smiled right back. “Yeah.”
It was only a few moments later that they were starting over again, breaking down trees and re-
gathering the most basic of resources in order to hopefully dig down to where they’d last left their
stuff.
In the middle of all this, Tango had only just realized that his newly acquired horn had been among
the items he’d lost in the cave. “Aw and I lost my horn!” He yelled suddenly upon remembering.
Jimmy’s head swung around comedically fast, looking at Tango with wide, regretful eyes.
“You had a horn??”
Tango opened his eyes slowly, observing the room around him. There were no windows in their
hidden base, so he couldn’t tell what time of day or night it was. But he did feel well rested, so he
figured it was probably morning.
One thing that concerned him however, was the lack of a warm body that had been previously
curled up around him when he fell asleep. He looked to his side.
Yep, no boyfriend in sight.

Just as he was starting to wonder where he might of went, he was startled by the sound of loud
shuffling and muttering coming from down the hall. He sat up, easing his body into a stretch
before getting up and out of bed and waking down the hall. He reached the entrance to their decoy
base—which should have been blocked off—and was met with a slightly anxious and somewhat
frantic-looking Jimmy. His hair was stuck up at a bunch of weird angles, although Tango figured
that was probably just bed-head. But he was also more undressed than he was when he fell asleep,
having now discarded his pants, which lie draped over a chair as he paced around the room
repetitively in only boxers and a t-shirt. On top of this, he seemed to have bitten down a few of his
nails, and his eyes were definitely glowing much redder than the night before.
“Angel?” Tango asked carefully. “You still feeling okay?”
Jimmy’s head shot up, having not noticed his partner standing in the doorway until he spoke. He
sighed and nodded his head begrudgingly.
“Yeah, I’ll be alright. I just woke up feeling a lot more…” He looked to the ceiling quickly as if
trying to figure out the right way to phrase his next sentence. “Intense? Violent?” He sighed. “I
don’t know, I just feel like I gotta kill something even more badly now, so I’ve kind of just been
trying to distract myself.”
Tango frowned and approached the other, putting a hand to his shoulder. “Just wake me up next
time, seriously.”
“I wanted to let you sleep-“
“-And that’s sweet of you, but I don’t care.” He repeated sternly. He then grinned mischievously,
making a move to wrap both of his arms around the other, leaning in so close his lips grazed his
ear.
“Besides,” He whispered. “I could have come up with some much better ways to distract you…”
He didn’t need to look. He knew his boyfriend was blushing. Tango moved one of his arms up
higher, letting his hand brush gently along the span of Jimmy’s wing all the way to the center
where it met with his back, making his body shudder against him. He then let his own head fall
lower, lips trailing the other’s neck, finding one of his sensitive spots and sucking on it gently.
Jimmy didn’t protest. He let out a groan and continued to shake slightly under Tango, letting him
continue for a while before trailing his own hand up the back of his head. He gently intertwined his
fingers with Tango’s hair and nudged his head away from his neck. The blaze hybrid complied,
pulling himself back only to be pushed forward once more into an intense, longing kiss. He tucked
another arm around his partner’s lower back as he felt the other make a similar motion, gripping his
body around the back and pulling him as close as he could, deepening the kiss even more while
Tango stuck his other hand under Jimmy’s leg and went to rub soft circles on the skin of his thigh.
Tango always admired how perfectly their bodies fit together. How a simple tug would make them
melt into each other in a way that made them never want to separate.
But unfortunately, his boyfriend seemed to feel like they had to.
Jimmy pulled himself away, breathing heavily with a pained look on his face as he slowly opened
his eyes.
“We- we shouldn’t start anything right now…” He said hesitantly.
All Tango could do was stare, giving him a pouty look of disappointment.
“I know, I want to, believe me—but, we shouldn’t be getting sidetracked at a time like this.”
The canary straightened his clothes back to normal, turning back to Tango and kissing him softly
on the cheek once more before separating completely and heading across the room to grab his
pants.
Tango ran a hand through his hair, sighing as he followed. “No, yeah- you’re right. We’re suppose
to be meeting up with Scott today.” He leaned against a wall, crossing his arms. “That, and you
still need to kill someone, right?”
Jimmy nodded, pulling on the rest of his clothes. Tango figured he should be getting dressed as
well and went back down the hall to grab his things.
“General violence should work too.” Jimmy continued once his partner returned. “But if I
remember correctly, the only way to completely reset the violent urges of a red player is to have
them kill another player.” He paused for a second. “Or in this case, phantom-kill them? I guess?”
“So that’ll get you back to normal then?” Tango asked.
“It should, yeah. At least until the urges start building up again a day or so later.” He was putting
on his shoes now. “It all really depends on how much willpower a person has. How badly they
want to keep from killing anybody.”
Tango recalled the boogeyman curse during Last Life and how it was essentially just normal red-
life instincts, but amplified by a hundred. Most boogeymen usually snapped and killed someone
within a handful of hours. The only person who got the curse and managed to maintain enough
willpower to not kill anyone until it passed was—
Scott.
The blaze hybrid tensed up. Side stepping the obvious reasons as to why he didn’t want Scott
hanging around them, he had to admit, he might prove to be a useful teammate to have. The man
had fight in him. At least that much was clear.
The two continued getting ready, both grabbing whatever necessary items they felt they’d need
before finally deciding to hit the road.
Tango opened the front door, having made sure to seal off the entrance to their secret base before
leaving, and took a step outside, waiting for Jimmy to follow.
He looked back to find the other simply standing in the doorway. He was gripping the door handle,
knuckles turning white with a conflicted expression on his face. Tango paused, about to ask him if
he was alright before Jimmy started speaking first.
“Tango…” He started carefully.
“Yeah?”
He took a pause, as if arguing on something in his head and then quickly shifted his expression of
worry into a soft smile.
“I love you.”
Tango blinked slowly before smiling back, gently pulling the other forward to place a chaste kiss
on the side of his head. “Love you too, angel.”
Jimmy couldn’t fool anyone for the life of him. He had something he needed to say but didn’t want
to. That was certain. Did it perhaps have something to do with what he’d said last night? He may
have fallen asleep before he was able to hear Tango’s promise to him, but did he think he just
didn’t answer? Maybe that was it? Although if that were the case, he wouldn’t have had any
trouble bringing it up with him again.
Tango decided to disregard it for now. He knew the other would talk when he was ready to. After
such a long time of knowing him, Tango was able to determine by now that simply ensuring his
partner that he was open to discussions at any time and that he could indeed tell him anything was
the best course of action when it came down to it. At least, with Jimmy it was.
The walk to Scott’s place went by much faster now that they knew where to find him. In all
honestly, Tango had still half expected him to have bolted by the time they showed up. But lo and
behold, he was still there to open the door for them after Tango had knocked (patiently this time).
Upon observation, he was quick to conclude that the other hadn’t looked any more well rested than
he did the evening before. He looked worse, in fact, the dark rings under his eyes now noticeable to
anyone even if they weren’t paying attention.
He let them in and the three all stood around the kitchen table much like they had yesterday. Scott
ran a hand through his hair, yawning.
“Jeez.” Tango murmured.
Jimmy seemed to have read his mind. “Did you sleep at all last night?” He asked in a concerned
tone.
Scott gave him a half-lidded stare before shrugging his shoulders slightly. “Got a little rest.” He
said, letting out another yawn. “Woke up late and couldn’t fall back though, you know how it is.”
Tango looked to Jimmy. This answer only seemed to concern him even more. But it was an easy
enough observation to brush off. Jimmy worried himself over everyone. So what if his concerns
were over his ex this time? It was nothing new. Tango certainly felt fine about it.
Naturally, he immediately tried to change the topic. “How about we sit down?” He said, gesturing
to the table.
They all ended up grabbing seats, and that’s when the real conversation began.
“So,” Tango said. “any ideas on how we’re gonna kill Grian?”
Jimmy shot him a look, brow quirked in confusion.
“What?” Tango asked. “That is our main goal here, right?”
“Scott gave a faint nod towards him. But Jimmy didn’t seem to agree.
“Um, I don’t know about you two, but my main goal for this game is to not die.” He explained
plainly. “And so far, I’ve been failing at that. A lot.”
Tango’s head sunk. So did Scott’s expression.
“We’ve—been failing at that.” He muttered to his boyfriend uncomfortably.
Jimmy fell silent for a moment, not denying anything that the other two had just said, but instead,
went ahead with the conversation as if to get them to stop dwelling on it.
“Look,” He said, starting once more. “It’s been about twelve hours since I turned red. So far, I’ve
been able to keep my urges down. But sooner or later, my thoughts aren’t going to be as coherent
anymore and I’m gonna be forced to kill someone indiscriminately.”
Scott sharply inhaled. “Yeah, we don’t want that.”
Tango had to agree. It’d be better for all of them if Jimmy’s first kill was executed while he didn’t
currently have the tendency of a rabid animal. But that window was closing with every minute that
passed.
“Hey?” The blaze hybrid asked, stepping back from his own racing thoughts. “How long do you
think it’ll be before you’re urges take over and you start entering kill mode?”
Jimmy paused. “Judging by how I’m feeling right now, I’d give it about eight hours. Maybe ten,
tops.”
“So we have some time then.” Scott nodded. “Okay, let’s think this over.” He leaned back in his
chair. “I think the obvious target here should be Scar or Bigb, preferably Bigb since Scar’s the
better fighter between them, making Bigb the easier target.
Tango opened his mouth to agree, but surprisingly, Jimmy argued on that idea.
“I don’t think that’d be a good idea right now.” He said. “Going after Bigb might kill Grian, yes,
but it also might kill Scar, and I don’t think we’d want him as a red life just yet.
Both Tango and Scott’s eyes shot open in horrific realization. Yeah, going off of the previous
games, red-life Scar could potentially be some very bad news. Especially if they make themselves
the target of his revenge to begin with by killing him. But even so, they’d still have a 50 percent
chance of bringing Grian down to yellow if they went after Bigb. So was it worth the risk?
Tango continued to ponder. Perhaps they should hold off on going after Grian’s group altogether.
Leave it to one of the many other bloodthirsty players who’re still peeved at him, for now at least.
But what if that’s what everyone else is gunning for as well? What if they’re all standing by
waiting for someone to make a move when in actuality no one will?
Well, that’s what sets their group appart from the rest. Unlike the others, they don’t have the time
to sit back and wait. Jimmy’s urges were increasing by the hour, and if he didn’t kill someone by at
least the end of the day, he’d soon find himself ignoring all logic and end up going for anyone
within the closest proximity to him simply to satisfy the bloodlust, i.e. probably Scott or himself.
And given how his luck has been fairing since the start of the game, it was incredibly possible that
he won’t survive that outcome at all.
So, they can’t phantom-kill Scar because he’s too big an obstacle. Add to that the unlikeliness of
them even being able to get him alone and any plan involving him disintegrates completely. They
don’t have the time right now to spy on him and wait for him to separate from his group either.
There’s no telling how long it’ll take for them to get that opportunity. It’d be hard for them to go
after Bigb for the same reasons. Plus a phantom death from him could just as easily throw Scar on
to his red life instead of putting Grian on his yellow.
They needed someone else to target.

“Maybe we could talk to some of the players we trust?” Tango said, simply throwing some
thoughts out into the open hoping to spark something. “See if they know of any groups that are
prone to splitting off from each other? I mean, that would make it easier for us if we could get
someone alone since the rules allow for an entire group to fight back if one team member is
attacked.”
Jimmy let out a hum. “Yeah, that would be ideal.” He turned to his other teammate. “Scott, I know
you talked with Cleo for a bit before- er- everything else happened.” He rubbed the back of his
neck awkwardly before continuing. “What did you guys talk about? Did she mention how any of
the other teams were getting along?”
“No, not that I can remember.” Scott rested his cheek tiredly on one of his fists while gazing at the
table, likely recalling everything that happened yesterday. “We didn’t talk about—“ His eyes
quickly flickered to Jimmy before going back to stare at the table under him. “—much…” he
continued.
Tango got the feeling that Scott might have been stretching the truth on that end. But he let him
continue.
“Wait—“ Scott recalled. “she did mention Ren and how she saw him bringing a cow back to his
base all by himself. Though, that was before there were any reds on the server, so he wasn’t risking
much by splitting off from his group at the time.” He lowered his shoulders and continued. “Then
we just sort of talked about monopolies and-“
He paused right there, eyes lighting up as he suddenly and quickly moved his head up from its
resting spot on his hands. “Uh- guys,” He stated steadily. “I think I just realized something…”
Both Tango and Jimmy gave each other an odd look before focusing back on Scott.
“What’d you realize?” Jimmy asked.
Scott grinned intensely. Tango had noticed, in the same type of way he did back when he read
Scar’s death message the other day.
“I think we might be the only group on the server that has an actual monopoly on something.”
They all paused, Tango and Jimmy equally confused by that statement.
“Um, a monopoly on what, exactly?” Tango asked.
Scott looked to Jimmy, staring deep into his red eyes.
“A monopoly—on murder.”
Chapter End Notes
Am not gonna confirm whether or not the segment at the beginning of the chapter was
Tango dreaming, but expect to see more snippets as time goes on detailing how him
and Jimmy fell in love ;)
Target Spotted
Chapter Summary
Jimmy, Scott, and Tango pitch their idea to Cleo. They finally find a person to kill.
Chapter Notes
Jimmy gave Scott a puzzled look for a solid three seconds before the gears in his head started
turning. He was the only red life on the server. Actually, if the current life count of all the other
players was anything to go by, he’d probably remain the only red life for a while. No other player
had the authority to kill unprovoked without breaking the rules. The only person capable of doing
that—was him.
“That, actually makes sense. We could use that…” Jimmy grinned a bit, looking down at the table
while pondering.
“Uh, hello? Use what??” Tango asked, clearly still out of the loop.
Jimmy looked back up at him. “Use my red life as a monopoly.” He said clearly. “Think about it,
no one’s managed to get down to red this fast before. Not while practically everyone is still green.
Not only does this mean that I’ll probably be the only red life for a good while, but I’ll also be the
only one capable of murdering or attacking people unprovoked since it’s against the rules for any
green or yellow life to do that.”
Tango’s eyes went wide. He wasn’t grinning at that idea like the other two were. “Hang on—so
you both think it’d be a good idea to sell your ability to kill? Like you’re some sort of hit man??”
Jimmy frowned. He turned to Scott, who simply shrugged his shoulders. “He’s going to have to kill
someone anyway. Might as well make a profit from it.”
“What- no! I- I don’t like that idea…” Tango seemed conflicted. Jimmy tried to reassure him.
“It’s not gonna be any more risky than it would have been if we’d just gone off and killed someone
on our own. At least this method allows us a way to finally catch up to the other players.”
His boyfriend looked at him, puzzled. “What do you mean by ‘catch up?’”
Jimmy sighed. “Tango, we’ve been behind on resources since half the stuff I mined got burned in
lava.”
Scott leaned back in his chair, arms crossed and directing his attention at Tango. “And who’s fault
is that?” He asked accusingly.
“ And —“Jimmy continued, shooting his head back around at Scott. “We weren’t able to gather
any more since we were too busy rebuilding our base.”
“And who’s fault is that?” Tango quipped back. Scott could only glare at him.
“What I’m trying to say-“ Jimmy went on. “-is that every other team is ahead of us. Not only in
shared lives but probably in everything else as well.” He sighed, slumping his shoulders. “We
don’t have any sustainable means of getting food, or any enchantments, or even a full set of armor
between the three of us!”
He looked back at Scott earnestly. “I think starting a monopoly on- uh- murder— is a good idea.”
Scott looked surprised that he’d said so, blinking a few times before smiling slightly. The canary
tried to continue with what he was saying, despite his heart now fluttering fiercely.
“But we need to be sensible about it.” He went on. “We can go around and ask people if we can
kill for them, but we shouldn’t follow through on any deals that seem too risky.”
Scott nodded in agreement. But Tango was still not on board. “Go around and ask-?? Okay, well
first of all, who here is even going to want someone dead just… because? It’s too early in the game
for anyone to have made any enemies, so what reason would they have for wanting us to kill
people for them?”
There was a moment of unsure silence between the three of them. And then, Scott perked up. “The
betting pool.” He said casually.
Jimmy brightened up along with him at that. “Oh my god, I’d nearly forgotten about that…”
Scott hummed before continuing. “I know for a fact that at least half of the players here are
obsessed with that thing.” He chewed his lip awkwardly. “I know I was during the last game, as
was Cleo.”
“Good point. She did place a lot of bets during the last three games. Was really good at predicting
the outcomes too. Although, I guess they’re not really predictions at this point, are they? More like
specific event competitions with prize money. Either way, she should probably be the first person
we go to for this.”
“Yeah, I guess so. It’s not like I’m on bad terms with her.”
“Neither are we.” Tango chimed in. “In fact, we were just talking with her yesterday.” He paused
for a moment, expression going grim. “She thinks you’re angry at her for the whole ravine
incident.”
Scott’s eyes went big. “Wait—what-? I’m not mad at her! I just-“ He stopped suddenly, looking
down at the ground as if frustrated with himself. “Shoot—she would assume that, wouldn’t she?”
Tango crossed his arms. “Well it’s not like you gave her much else to go off of.”
Jimmy continued looking at Scott. He seemed so lost in thought.
“Alright.” He finally said. “Let’s go visit Cleo and see if there’s anyone she’s placed any bets
against.” He looked back at Jimmy. “If that’s okay with you, of course. You are the one who’s
sanity clock will be counting down the entire time we spend figuring this out. So if you have any
other ideas, I’m all for hearing them.”
“No.” The canary replied. “This is a good one.” He shifted his seat out and stood up, Let’s talk to
Cleo.”
Tango got up next, pulling out his comm. “Alright, well, if you really think this is a good idea, I’ll
send her a message and see where she’s at…”
—
The walk there was short, but still awkward none the less. Jimmy wanted to hold his boyfriend’s
hand like he usually did, but figured it’d be a bad idea considering everything that had happened
yesterday. Instead, he kept his hands in his pockets, sending a silent, non-verbal message to Tango
telling him not to try anything, which he seemed to receive clearly, if a little reluctantly. Instead,
the canary simply walked in the middle of both of them in silence.
Well, at least that was one improvement they’d made. Scott was no longer speed walking to stay
ahead of them or slowing down to trail behind, but instead, keeping to their pace as if no longer
feeling as upset by their presence. It felt almost perfect to Jimmy.
He wished he could just hold both of their hands.
The canary nearly tripped over his own feet the moment that thought popped into his head. Damn
it, he still needed to speak to Tango about the feelings he still had towards his ex that he’d been
hanging on to since they broke up. He’d been working up to it since last night when he woke up
abruptly and couldn’t go back to sleep. He’d spent part of the night pacing around and practicing
what he was going to say and how he might say it, but as it turned out, planning it through,
unfortunately, didn’t make it any easier—or less terrifying.
Tango seemed to have noticed the look of unease Jimmy was certain he was wearing, as he was
about to ask him something before Scott stopped where he stood, suddenly entranced by what was
in front of them. Both Jimmy and Tango’s gaze followed his.
The area Cleo’s group had chosen appeared to be one close to the world border. A wide stretch of
sand met with part of an ocean that got cut off by the translucent wall, making a simple but
charming beach.
What was on that beach was even more captivating. A circular, somewhat tube-shaped build
stretched upwards past the trees. It’s roof was made of wood while the rest of its exterior appeared
to have been constructed from a number of different stones. In its center, on the top floor, was a
small fire encased by quartz slabs, kept burning by what Jimmy could only assume was netherrack.
“It’s a lighthouse.” Scott said, having seemingly read the canary’s mind.
“Yeah, it appears so.” It was certainly a nice build. Although Jimmy was skeptical as to how
Cleo’s group had found the time to make it look so nice. On top of that, the raging fire they had
going on clued him in that they’d been able to go to the nether at some point as well.
The canary frowned. They really were behind on everything, but that only served as more
motivation to go through with Scott’s idea. Maybe Cleo had someone she wanted dead badly
enough that she’d be willing to give them a good deal on it. They could only hope.
Just then, Cleo herself walked out of the build’s front entrance, staring at the three of them
skeptically. She turned her head around to look at the lighthouse and then turned back to them,
smiling cheekily.
“So,” she smirked. “You really think my build’s that good, do you?”
Jimmy blushed. “Uh- well, yeah—it’s pretty good.” He stuttered.
“So good that you’re all gonna stare at it instead of coming inside?”
Jimmy turned to Scott, who just rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah—we were getting to that.” He said
dryly while making a move to head towards Cleo. Jimmy and Tango followed until they were all
past the front door.
From what he could see, the interior seemed fairly nice as well, if a little bare. There weren’t any
seats, so Cleo opted to lean against a wall. “What can I do for you gents?” She asked politely.
Scott was the first to answer and Jimmy was thankful for it. He had no idea how he was suppose to
explain to Cleo that they wanted to trade his ability to kill people for resources.
“Well first off, Cleo, I wanted to let you know I’m not mad at you about the ravine trap you
made.” Scott spoke genuinely while Cleo seemed to shuffle in place.
“Seriously. And I’m sorry I made you feel that way.” He sighed. “It’s just—that was my second
phantom-death that day and I was already fed up with myself and I just wanted to go lie down after
that. That’s all. I’m sorry I didn’t try to talk to you after that.”
Cleo’s expression changed slightly, her shoulders now slumped and eyes containing a sad look to
them. “Yeah?” She started. “Well, I’m sorry too.”
Scott opened his mouth, likely to re-emphasize his former statement, but Cleo just held a finger up,
stopping him. “I forgave you, didn’t I? So at least let me ask for you to do the same. I don’t care if
you think there’s nothing to forgive.”
Scott’s mouth immediately closed, his complexion tensing up. That whole exchange made Jimmy
wonder just how much closer the two had gotten during the last game. It was as if they were
telepathic.
“Fine.” He said. “If that’s all you want, then I forgive you too.”
Cleo went back to smiling. “Thank you.” She said, now moving to stand up straight again. “And
also, I couldn’t help but notice that you left your cow behind as well.”
Scott made a face, running a hand behind the back of his head. “Oh, right. I guess I did forget
about that.”
“Well, I brought it back with me—if you still want it that is.”
Scott’s head shot up at that. Wait, what? You didn’t have to do that!”
Cleo shrugged. “Figured you’d want it back once you were done sulking.” She grinned. “I mean, I
just threw it in the cow pen we’d built. But I’m sure any one would be fine for you, yeah?”
“That—would be great, yeah. I mean, if that really is okay with you. I still don’t really have a
stable food source, so-“
It was then that Tango suddenly cleared his throat loud enough to direct everyone’s attention
towards him. “We seem to be getting a bit off track here, don’t you think?” He asked, turning to
Scott, who blushed slightly.
“Ah- right.” He looked back at Cleo. “We actually came here to ask if you’d like to make a deal
with us.”
Cleo raised an eyebrow. “What kind of deal?“ She asked curiously.
“Well,” Scott started. “We’ve come to realize that Jimmy is the only person on this server who can
kill unexpectedly and without being provoked.”
Cleo looked over to Jimmy. He gave her an awkward smile.
“So, we were wondering if there was anyone you might have been planning on killing once you
turned red that we could kill for you in advance. Perhaps someone you might have placed a bet
against before the game started?”
Cleo just stood there, shifting her gaze between the three of them before finally landing it back on
Scott and speaking again. “Wait—you guys are being serious?”
Tango looked offended at that statement. “Uh, yeah??” He spoke sharply.
Cleo just stood there, gawking at them while Scott tried to further explain his reasoning behind the
whole idea. “Look,” he said. “Jimmy’s gonna kill someone eventually regardless of whether or not
anyone placed a bet on them losing. So we can either just let that happen and go after a random
player, or you could let us in on who it is you’re betting against—because I know you’ve bet
against at least one person, just like you always do—and we could target them instead for
something in exchange.”
The undead woman grinned, jokingly stroking her chin as if she was giving this pitch any hard
thought at all. “Hmmm…” She hummed. “Something in exchange you say? Well, ignoring how
much of what you just said sounded like a threat, what was it you had in mind?”
Jimmy stepped forward, being the first to speak this time. “Well that depends, who would you plan
on having us kill?”
She took a pause. “I can tell you one of the people I’ve bet against, but I need you to promise me
you won’t tell anyone, regardless of whether you decide to take me up on my offer or not. I don’t
want him coming after me if word gets out.”
Tango grinned. “Cleo, please.” He said smugly. “We’re professionals.”

Cleo let out a snort at that.
“Really.” Jimmy emphasized. “We’re not gonna stab you in the back like that. Promise.”
She paused and put her hand down. Looking as though that was good enough for her. “Alright.”
She replied. “If anyone finds out I sent you after him, I’m coming for you. That being said, it’s
Martyn. And if I’m being honest, I’d be willing to trade pretty much any of my own belongings
that I’ve gathered so far in order to see him knocked down to yellow.”
This… was no surprise to Jimmy whatsoever. He should have figured Cleo would be hoping for
the downfall of the person she’d been trying to avoid all of last session. He had pushed her off a
cliff, after all. It’s not as though her and Martyn had any real ill intent towards each other outside of
the Life games. But as the saying goes: an eye for an eye.
“Martyn…” Jimmy muttered to himself. Would he be able to handle his teammates? He recalled
who he was teamed with: Ren and Impulse. Those were the people he’d have to attack if he wanted
a chance of killing the guy.
Ren—and Impulse.
Impulse. Good god—where does he even start with Impulse? If he said he felt indifferent towards
him he’d be lying. He wished he could be. But there was no separating the fact that still lingered in
the back of his mind that Impulse used to be with Tango. That is, until he came along.
It was all coming back to him once more, all the chaos that broke out after Double Life, all the
complicated relationships they needed to sift through in order to make sense of anything—and even
then, it still made no sense!—out of every one of those relationships, Jimmy couldn’t help but
think that he had somehow managed to get stuck in the middle of the most obscure one of them all.
And that was saying something.
He thought of Scott, and how he likely knew about none of this. Not unless someone from
Hermitcraft had told him without him knowing. But he highly doubted that. It’s not as though
people wanted to remember how awful this whole situation really was. But some part of him was
still frustrated over it. Scott had run away from all of those problems. Jimmy could even argue that
he’d managed to leave the after-party right before the real drama began. And oh boy, was it a
nightmare.
Apparently, Impulse and Tango had been drifting appart in their relationship for the past few
months anyway. Add in the whole Double Life fiasco and they now had a solid excuse to break
things off for good. At least, that’s what Tango had told him. Did Jimmy doubt him on that? A
little. He was at least suspicious of him having possibly stretched the truth on the whole
explanation, but he was never too persistent on demanding the truth from Tango. If anything, he
didn’t think he wanted to know.
They talked. Him, Tango, Impulse, and Bdubs. There was a lot of screaming involved. A lot of
crying too. But in the end, they all messily came to the conclusion that no amalgamation of a
relationship and no amount of bending backwards was going to make this work, and that Impulse
would stick with Bdubs and Jimmy would stick with Tango.
He hadn’t known Tango had also had a boyfriend before the start of the game. Once he’d learned
of that, he told Tango that he didn’t want to be the reason anyone’s life got ruined. That he didn’t
want to break anyone up. But was that really the truth? No. Not at all. He knew himself better than
that. The only reason Jimmy would ever want to let go of Tango would be if Tango wanted to
leave himself, and he hadn’t budged a bit during that entire conversation. Not once did he ever
even consider moving forward without Jimmy in his life. The canary had argued against this to
some extent. He’d put up a fight, sure, but not a good one, not by any measure. He knew he was
being selfish, but damn it, he wasn’t ready to budge either.
At some point during all of the yelling, Impulse had mentioned that they’d been together for years.
Jimmy felt sick after hearing that. He almost caved, almost ran away like Scott did. That whole
time he could tell Bdubs was thinking the same. They kept making eye contact, and the look on his
face was all Jimmy needed to know that Bdubs was just as scared as he was. Maybe even more so
since he’d known both Tango and Impulse as friends for longer than he had. He felt sorry for the
guy since he knew he’d have to go back to the same server as everyone else involved once all this
was over. He wondered what the hell even came next for all of them afterwards.
And that wasn’t even the half of their problems. The person that really made this whole situation
go nuclear—was Zedaph.
“Jimmy?” He heard Scott ask. The canary snapped back into the present. “Are you okay with
this?” He went on. “No one else here is red, so you’d be taking on the most risk. It’s your call. If
you don’t think you can handle Ren or Impulse then we can just find someone else.”
Jimmy’s thoughts ran wild once more. Maybe it would be fine. Maybe he wouldn’t have to
confront Impulse again just yet. They could go after Ren, obviously. In fact, he might be the better
choice between the two. Maybe he could convince Scott of that. He knew he certainly wouldn’t
have to convince Tango of anything.
He chanced a quick look at the blaze hybrid. All the other did was smile gently, giving Jimmy a
nod of approval, and that was confirmation enough. The only person left to get on board with this,
was him.
Jimmy swallowed down the lump in his throat. Running wasn’t going to fix anything, and he knew
as well as Scott did that despite him asking for his consent in all this, they weren’t going to have
much time to debate on a different target if his answer was ‘no’.
The canary clenched his fists at his sides, looking to Cleo with determination. “I’ll do it.” He
answered. He then turned to his teammates.
“Let’s kill Martyn.”
Chapter End Notes
Me: tries not to make anyone the bad guy
Also me: more-or-less makes *everyone* the bad guy
Whoops…
Shush!
Chapter Summary
A wild Impulse appears. Tango is forced into a very awkward conversation. Martyn’s
probably gonna pass out from having to walk up all those stairs.
Chapter Notes
***spoilers for recent empires/hermitcraft events in the endnotes***
First thing was first, they needed to figure out what they’d be getting out of this.
Since selling your ability to kill someone was something more than new on the market, to say the
least, negotiation was somewhat stiff. But in the end, Cleo was willing to give them an
advancement that involved completing all of their currently incomplete sets of armor while
promising them a dozen diamonds and four of her cows, including the one that Scott had forgotten
once they finished the job. Surprisingly, the cows were the most tempting thing out of the whole
offer. Scott knew they were going to be needing their own food source eventually, so being able to
breed cows would come in handy for sure. Additionally, Cleo had offered them a spyglass she’d
crafted free of charge.
“You’ll probably be needing this.” She said, shoving it into Jimmy’s already full arms. “I was able
to get their base coords from Bdubs since he’s been- uh— visiting Impulse.” Her eyes darted over
to Tango for a second and there was a nervous shake in her voice with those last few words. Scott
wondered what that was about.
“And he took me to see it this morning and, well, lemme just say, you’re in for a surprise.”
“But—why-?” Jimmy tried to ask, but only had his questions shushed by Cleo.
“It’ll be funnier if I don’t give it away.” She smiled. “Just trust me, you’re gonna need the spyglass
once you get there.”
Cleo, ever the cryptic, ended that conversation before it even started.
Having made sure their offers were all squared away, the group wasted no time heading out to go
find Martyn’s team. “But remember,” Cleo told them as they were leaving. “I never sent you and
you didn’t get their base location from me.”
“Understood.” Tango replied. He and Jimmy were already out the front door. Scott made a move to
follow them but suddenly felt a hand gently grab at his arm. He turned around.
“You haven’t been sleeping.” Cleo uttered to him, voice now full of quiet concern.
Shoot. She’d noticed the rings on his eyes too. Was it really that obvious?
“I haven’t.” Scott replied, knowing full well that any attempt on getting a lie past the undead
woman would be futile. “And I probably won’t for the rest of this game, if that’s what you’re
wondering. There’s nothing to be done about it, so please, don’t worry yourself over me.”
Scott saw the other’s expression drop immensely. “It’s because of Jimmy, isn’t it?”
Now that—caught him off guard.
Scott narrowed his eyes. “What are you implyi-?”
“Scott!” He heard Tango yell from behind him. As he turned around, he saw that him and Jimmy
were already several meters ahead of him. “No really, y’know, take your time since we have so
much of it!” He yelled over to him sarcastically.
He turned back to his friend, who’s face still held a worried expression, but despite her concerns,
decided to finally let him go. “We’ll talk later.” She finished, regretfully stepping away. “Good
luck.”
Scott simply nodded, turned heel, and began jogging towards his teammates.
—
According to Cleo, Martyn’s team decided to set up camp almost directly opposite to her base on
the map. This unfortunately, left them with a long walk and an even longer gap of awkward silence
between them.
Scott chanced a quick look over at his ex, who appeared to have reached a dilemma, seeing as he
had run out of nails to bite and had now opted for distracting himself by unknotting a piece of
tangled string he’d had in his inventory.
Scott wondered if he should say something. He was curious, of course. If anything, he figured
Jimmy would be talking to Tango nonstop or would be holding hands with him like he usually did.
This time, perhaps as a way of occupying himself while keeping his mind off of murder. The
hopeful side of him figured they might have had an argument or some sort of fight the night before
or during a time when he wasn’t around. The more conceited side of him, however, guessed that
they could have also been distancing themselves for him so as to not cause any drama like
yesterday. He wondered if they really did care that much about what he thought. Perhaps not, but it
didn’t matter. He was better off not having to watch the guy who practically stole his partner put
his hands all over him either way.
Watching Jimmy struggle however, made him remember what he’d said to Cleo the other day.
“When I see him again, I’ll ask him if he needs anything.”
Screw it. He’d made a promise to Cleo and he didn’t feel much up for walking in silence anyway.
He raised an arm and lightly nudged Jimmy in the shoulder with his elbow causing him to whip his
head up from the string he was trying so hard to focus on. “Was there anything I could give you
that could help?” He asked almost awkwardly. Jimmy simply tilted his head in a confused manner,
Tango having followed his lead, also leaned his head over to the side to get a better look at Scott
from behind his boyfriend. They were probably both wondering what on earth got the other to be
so talkative all of a sudden.
“As a distraction—I mean.” Scott restated. “I know it’s not easy trying to control yourself as a red
life. So was there anything I could give you that might help distract you some more?”
Scott had a few replies mind that he may have been expecting upon asking such a thing out of the
blue. Jimmy could have responded to him calmly, maybe asked him for more string or a different
trinket he could play around with, could have answered ‘no’, or glared at him suspiciously, or have
even told him to ‘shut up’. But what Scott didn’t expect, was for Jimmy to drop the string he was
holding, stop walking altogether, and suddenly go bright red in the face, eyes wide and expression
panicked.
“I- oh Jesus —I mean- n-no—I’m good, th-thank you-“ The canary hybrid was choking on every
one of his words as he tried to communicate. Scott figured he would have found it cute if he wasn’t
so confused.
Tango froze in his tracks as well, disregarding his and Jimmy’s seemingly established ‘no-touch
rule’ and putting a hand to his shoulder. “Everything alright?” He asked suspiciously.
This only seemed to make the other panic even more. “Me? I’m f-fiiine —everything’s fine…” He
stuttered, lightly brushing Tango’s hand off of him. “Just- uh- a bit jumpy r-right now, you know?
Must be one of the red life symptoms, heh.” He turned back to Scott, still blushing intensely. “But
—n-no, there isn’t anything I need from you—th-thanks though.”
He then shoved both his hands in his pockets and started to walk again, this time much faster.
Tango seemed to shoot Scott mutual look of confusion before they both began trotting ahead to
keep pace with their teammate.
They reached him quickly, but before they could question his erratic behavior even further, the
canary started talking again. “I think we’re close.” He said, looking at the coordinates on his
comm. He then looked back up—likely to make sure they were still going in the right direction—
only to stop once more to stare into the distance. “I think—I think I actually see it!” He said,
surprised.
“How can you see it?” Scott asked, checking his own comm before trailing his eyes to where the
canary was looking. “It’s still a while awa-“ He stopped talking as soon as his gaze met what
Jimmy had seen.
If they’d thought Cleo’s build was impressive—they were right. But this build was impressive for
much different reasons.
What they were looking at could only be described as a skyscraper, and appart from it being
perhaps the ugliest thing Scott had ever seen, it was also one of the tallest. The build seemed to
have been constructed out of pretty much any type of block the team could get their hands on,
wood, stone, netherrack, all strewn together in a solid, thin, rectangle of a tower that seemed to do
one thing and one thing only: ascend. On top of that, every floor of the tower seemed to have its
own large window on each wall. There wasn’t any glass in them however. Scott figured they made
it that way so as to save more of the materials that they’d inevitably use to further the build’s
height.
He quickly recalled Ren and Bigb’s build from the last game and cringed. Yeah, scratch that,
maybe this was just the second ugliest thing he’d ever seen. No wonder too, as Ren was also on
this team and had probably contributed to the tower. The man was a good builder, but he could also
make some nasty designs when he wanted to.
Eventually, all three of them were able to peel their eyes off of it long enough to finish their
journey, working their way over the now mountainous terrain that they found themselves in while
trying not to be seen by whoever might be lingering around the building. It was only when they had
gotten close enough to determine where the entrance was did they all take a breather and crouch
down behind a snowy hill to establish a game plan.
Each of them peered over the edge to get a better look at everything. From this distance, Scott
could make out their front yard, which had been spammed with torches. Most likely to keep mobs
away during the night, but they also appeared to have been there as a way of warming the ground
up. Not only was the area covered in light, but also in planted wheat and a series of randomly
placed flowers. If anything, the wheat made the entire layout look even worse, as the bulk of it was
in different stages of growing. The flowers however, were an odd touch. Scott wondered who’s
idea they were and why everyone in this session seemed to be making flowers the theme of their
base all of a sudden.
Raising his head, he struggled to see the top of the build, but was able to just barely make out a
single figure occupying the top floor. Just as he was about to ask Jimmy to hand him the spyglass,
they all heard the sound of footsteps crunching under the padded snow. Each of them darted their
heads back under the hill for a moment, but whoever was walking out front didn’t seem to be
leaving. Cautiously, Scott guided his head back up, peering over the hill just enough for his eyes to
poke over, seeing none other than Impulse tending to the wheat.
“It’s just Impulse out there.” He said, whispering and crouching back down. “This is good. He
looks like he’s alone.” He wasted no time summoning a sword out of his inventory, eager to get the
jump on Impulse while his teammates weren’t around. “Let’s just go after him now while there’s
no one else there.” He turned to the canary. “Jimmy, you’re going to have to attack first since me
and Tango aren’t red, but if he ends up fighting back, that’ll make it legal for us to-“
“I’m not attacking Impulse.” He stated, bluntly cutting off Scott’s plan of action before it had even
begun.
Scott looked at him, dumbfounded as he slowly made his sword disappear. “I’m sorry— what??”
Jimmy didn’t flinch in the slightest. “I said, I’m not attacking Impulse.” He repeated stoically. “We
should be going after Ren instead.”
“And why’s that?” Scott asked, tone now a bit more impatient.
“Ren’s the weaker fighter out of the two of them. He’ll be the easier one to target.”
“Uh huh…” Scott went on. “Okay, well, let’s assume that despite all of the chaos Ren was able to
stir up during Third Life with Dogwarts, he’s still the less violent person between the two, sure.
But even if that were the case, it’d still be three against one here.” He threw a hand over the side of
the hill, gesturing towards Impulse. “We’re not gonna get a better chance at an ambush than we are
right now.”
Scott looked over at Tango, who’s face had oddly enough, gone completely white.
Despite this, Scott persisted. “Tango,” he said. “Back me up here. This is the only plan that makes
sense! Right??”
Tango said nothing, sheepishly rubbing his arm while looking at the ground, still apparently
terrified.
“Am I the only one here who hasn’t lost their mind??” Scott almost yelled, raising his voice just
enough so as to not get caught but still make a point.
It was by no means a yell, but Jimmy seemed to take it as such. Something deranged suddenly
flashed in his eyes and in hardly a second he’d taken out his sword and took a swift dive towards
Scott, pinning him to the snowy ground. Just as he was about to plunge the weapon into him, Scott
grabbed at the sharp blade with both hands and held on for dear life, using all of his strength to
keep it at bay.
“What the hell are you doing??” He grit through his teeth as he watched the blade dig into his
palms. This had to have been at least the dozenth time during this game that he’d been grateful the
pain settings were dulled, but it still stung like crazy, and he was taking damage fast.
“Gotta… Kill… something…” The other’s eyes were glowing a terrifying shade of red as he
muttered fiercely. Scott wondered if it was still Jimmy behind them.
“Kill Impulse then!!” The sword continued slipping downward. Scott wasn’t sure how much
longer he could hold it off. Was Jimmy always this strong?? Jesus-
Only a second later and the canary was off him. Scott watched as Tango tackled him, kicking his
sword away and holding him down fiercely by the wrists.
“Heyheyheyhey-“ he repeated calmly. “It’s okay, everything’s okay. No ones gonna kill you.
You’re safe.”
Jimmy shifted from under him, slowing his movements ever so cautiously with every word that
Tango whispered.
“You’re safe.” He repeated. “I know you wanna attack someone right now, but trust me, you don’t
want it to be Scott. Remember why that’d be a bad idea?”
Scott watched as Jimmy continued to stir slightly before ceasing his struggling altogether, the
bright red of his eyes now fading out to a duller, less aggressive shade. “Cause—that could kill
me…” He answered, voice much calmer than before.
“Yeah, exactly.” Tango cautiously loosened his grip, letting the other sit upright. Jimmy ran a hand
through his hair as if nursing a headache, then turned to look at Scott, who was still in a state of
utter shock.
“Sorry—I- I’m so sorry.”
Scott could only stare in confusion for a moment before sighing in defeat, pulling out some bread
and eating it to regain health before speaking up again. “Tell me, why are you both so desperate to
not attack Impulse?” He tried to state calmly.
Tango simply closed his eyes, breathing inward before speaking. “Impulse—is…” He swallowed,
eyes darting across the ground as if searching for the answer to that question himself. “He’s a
friend of mine.” The blaze hybrid finally settled on.
Scott just continued staring. “Uh— and??” He asked sarcastically, throwing both of his arms
forward. “I know that much, Tango. You guys talked like, nonstop during the Last Life after-
party. But I don’t see how that changes anything. Its still just a game. You wouldn’t be, like,
betraying him or anything if you were to attack him. It’s literally what the whole point of the
session is! To mess around with your friends!”
Scott could only watch as Tango blushed, body going even stiffer. “Yeah, well, this time, it’s
different.”
“Different how?” Scott whispered angrily. “Is this about the betting pool? Cause if so, you should
have said something sooner-“
“I just don’t want to attack him! Okay??”
There was a dead silence that hung in the air. Scott had no idea how he should respond to that.
Tango clearly wasn’t going to budge on this and neither was Jimmy, apparently. Did they both
know something that he didn’t? What was even going on??
Scott was just about ready to throw his sword into Tango’s face, rules be dammed. But before he
could think anything through, he heard the distant sound of a second voice. He, Tango, and Jimmy
all stopped what they were doing and inched their heads over the hill once more to see none other
than Martyn walk out the front entrance of the skyscraper.
Scott clenched his fists. “See?? This is why we should have moved quickly. Now, we’ve lost our
chance at getting him alone!”
Much to Scott’s annoyance, Tango held a finger up and shushed him. “Lemme hear what they’re
saying.” He whispered. Rather than fight with him, Scott decided to listen in as well.
“You can’t keep avoiding him.” He heard Impulse say.
“Yeah? Watch me.” Martyn said back.

The next few words to come out of Impulse’s mouth were more quiet and hard to hear. But after
they were said, Martyn answered back with a volume increased tenfold.
“Oh my god- you know what? Fine! I’ll tell him you sent me!” The blonde yelled angrily. He then
marched back inside, slamming the door behind him, thus, rendering him out of view once more
for the time being.
Scott… wasn’t sure what to make of this. He looked to his teammates for answers, but they both
just seemed equally confused.
After keeping an eye out for a little while longer, the three decided to crouch down once more after
making sure that Martyn wasn’t coming back out again. Impulse however, remained in the garden.
Still alone and vulnerable.
“As I was saying…” Scott went on. “We should have gotten to him while we had the chance,
which we now have once again. So, what’s it going to be?”
“Still no.” Tango responded. And Scott decided then and there that he no longer had the energy to
argue with him anymore.
“Alright—jeez, fine, what do you suggest we do then?”
Tango paused for a second, probably not thinking he would have gotten this far, before Jimmy
answered for him.
“Top floor.” The canary said. Both Scott and Tango turned to look at him. He was holding the
spyglass Cleo had given him up to his eye, looking at the highest point of the build. “Martyn’s
headed for the top floor of the building to talk to Ren. Maybe we could sneak around the back,
build up, and jump him when he gets there?” He took his eye off the glass and handed it to Tango,
who pointed it in the same direction.
“Nice to see you’re sane again and aren’t trying to stab people.” Scott noted plainly.
“Oh shoot—you’re right!” Tango interjected. Scott grabbed the spyglass from him and took a look
for himself. Sure enough, he could see through the many windows available on the build that Ren
was on the top floor and about halfway below him, Martyn was working his way upward via a
central staircase.
“Well, he did say something about going to see someone.” Tango brought up. But Scott wasn’t
listening, he was busy coming up with another plan to incorporate the new information they now
had.
“Alright.” He said, peeling his eyes off the spyglass and folding it back inside itself. “Because you
both are so adamant on not attacking Impulse, here’s what we’re gonna do.” He turned to his
teammates. “I doubt we have enough materials to scale that monster of a building. So we’ll
probably have to climb it the same way Martyn is, from the inside.” He tossed the glass back at
Jimmy and turned to Tango, making sure to say his next words as quickly as possible so as to not
waste any more time. “Since you’re apparently sooo close with Impulse, you can go and have a talk
with him to distract him so me and Jimmy can sneak past him and get into the tower.
Tango had looked nervous at the notion of attacking Impulse, but upon hearing this new
suggestion, his face contorted into an expression of absolute terror.
“Hey- waitwaitwait—That’s not- I can’t do that!”
Scott had had enough of this. Jimmy needed to kill someone soon and so far, Tango had been doing
absolutely nothing to help with that.
If the man wanted to be a nuisance, then so could he.
“Sure you can.” Scott said while grinning, and before Tango even had a chance to comprehend
what was happening, he grabbed both of the other’s shoulders and gave him a hard shove
backwards.
Tango’s entire body emerged from behind the hill and fell to the ground, fully visible to anyone
they might have been spying on. But if that alone wasn’t enough to get Impulse’s attention, the
loud, surprised yelp he let out certainly was.
Scott didn’t see it, but he knew from the sudden stop of crunching snow that Impulse had indeed
noticed Tango’s little display. Jimmy looked at him, horrified and about to yell something before
Scott grabbed him by the waist and held him close, putting a hand over his mouth to keep him
from talking. Much to Scott’s dismay, he found it all too comforting having Jimmy this close to
him again, the canary’s warm body pressed flat against his. But under these circumstances, it also
felt very wrong.
They continued hiding behind the hill, listening in to everything.
“Tango?” He heard Impulse say questioningly.
“Uh—hey?” Tango answered back.
“What… are you doing here?”
“Just- uh- w-wanted to talk to- you—kinda. S- see how you were doing…”
This comment was followed by an uncomfortably long beat of silence between them. Scott had no
idea why they seemed so awkward while talking with each other. Tango had said they were
friends. What was even the problem?
“…Okayyy?” Impulse finally replied. “Well, I guess I’ve been doing fine. How about you? Are
you doing alright? I heard you’ve been having some trouble with your team, for the obvious
reasons, of course.”
“Ah, that? Pfff—don’t worry about that. I’ve still been having fun despite- ah- everything.”
“Oh, well, that’s good to hear.” Impulse took another pause. “Hey, speaking of, where are your
teamma-“
“Wow!” Tango said abruptly before Impulse could finish. “Your garden looks so nice!!” Scott
could hear his footsteps moving farther away. “Did you do all of this??”
“Uh, well actually, Ren technically did most of it.” Impulse’s voice was now sounding farther
away as well. This was good.
“I can show you the backyard too, if you’d like.”

“That would be great! Yeah! What did you do over there-?”
Their voices were now completely faded. The plan had worked. It was at that point in time that
Jimmy decided to fight his way out of Scott’s arms viciously, turning around to face him with a
sharp look of anger.
“You shouldn’t have done that!” He seethed, finally able to yell in a voice that wasn’t a whisper.
“It’s not that Tango didn’t want to fight Impulse because they were friends, he wanted to avoid him
completely because- well-“ Jimmy grit his teeth and looked to the ground, as if deciding on what to
say next. “They had some drama between them that happened after the last game, alright? And
he’s not ready to talk with anyone about it.”
All Scott could do was roll his eyes. “Yeah? Well guess what? He’s not the only one here who has
people they’ve been trying to avoid!”
Scott left out the obvious implication in that statement, but he figured Jimmy got the message.
“He’s already talking to him. So let’s not let that go to waste, alright?”
Jimmy’s expression only darkened. If looks could kill, he now sported a glare that could massacre.
Scott was caught off guard by it. He didn’t think he’d ever seen the other look at him like that. He
wouldn’t admit it, but he felt upset at the sight. Jimmy’s eyes were suppose to be soft, not
menacing. It was all wrong. He almost wanted to apologize for doing whatever the heck it was that
angered him so much.
“Fine.” He said coldly. “Let’s follow your stupid plan then.” He paced off ahead, checking to see
that Impulse was really gone before circling around the hill and making a beeline for the front
entrance of the tower.
Scott only stood there in shock. He got the uncomfortable feeling that he’d somehow messed up big
time just then, having pissed off his ex in some unforgivable way.
“God—are you coming or not, Scott??” He shouted in annoyance.
“I-“ He wanted to say something. Anything that might get the other to stop hating him like this, but
ultimately, he just couldn’t find the words.
“Yeah,” he muttered quietly, tiredly putting one foot in front of the other. “I’m coming…”
Chapter End Notes
Sorry to cut the chapter off at such a weird point but it was getting long and I wasn’t
sure I could write that much in a week
Also—EMPIRES/HERMIT CROSSOVER? RANCHER REUION? THE FUCKING

HEARTS IN TANGO’S VIDEO?? HELLO?!?!
We stay winning
Rise and Fall
Chapter Summary
Tango and Impulse have their first real conversation in months. Amends are made.
And then, destroyed.
Chapter Notes
Tango was never really one for thunderstorms. They were loud and chaotic. Which was something
he was fine with under nearly any other circumstance, but when it pertained to the weather, it just
moved him the wrong way for multiple reasons. Chief among them, being how incompatible they
were with his netherborn traits.
For one thing, his ears were incredibly sensitive to loud noises, so hearing the sound of lightning
cracking was always like getting violently jump-scared. While second and more obviously, the rain
made him uncomfortable in ways others wouldn’t believe. It wasn’t harmful to him like it might be
for an enderman or end hybrid. It didn’t physically hurt him and he could drink water and take
showers just fine, but something about being fully absorbed in it out in the open with no immediate
way out—terrified him. It set off every alarm in the instinctive end of his brain at once, with
almost every time in which he’s tried to get out in the rain of his own volition ending in failure. He
just couldn’t do it.
Right now however? He’d kill for a thunderstorm. He’d do anything to just get struck right here, in
this moment, with a quick, strong, bolt of lighting that would just erase his entire being from
existence. Although, that wouldn’t actually kill him, would it? Not in on this server, anyway.
“I personally think the back’s way better than the front since we don’t have all those ugly patches
of wheat growing everywhere.”
“Uh huh…” Tango nodded his head as Impulse spoke, trying very hard not to let the awkwardness
of the whole situation get to him. Impulse continued talking while gesturing at different areas.
“And here Ren decided to add some bushes, and over there he used orange tulips instead of red
ones,” He turned to Tango, expression unchanging. “aaaand you didn’t come here to talk about
any of that, did you?”
Tango’s head perked up, Impulse’s transition having caught him off guard. “Well—I-“
“No, it’s fine, I didn’t expect you to have.” He continued. “I’m not sure why exactly you did show
up, but it certainly wasn’t to see how I was doing, seeing as this is the first time you’ve approached
me in months.”
Good god, Tango could really use that lightning right about now.
He had been avoiding Impulse, that much was true, but it wasn’t as though the other had been
dying to approach him either. This avoidance went both ways, and so long as Tango was trapped
here, he might as well let his ex know exactly what he thought of his hypocritical accusation.
“Speak for yourself.” Tango said back, his composure steadily returning. “You haven’t made any
attempts either.”
Impulse scoffed. “I was trying to give you space.” He stated. “Standing by on something is
completely different from actively trying to avoid someone altogether. Which is clearly what
you’ve been doing.”
Tango clenched his fists. If Impulse really wanted to direct their conversation down this road, then
the least he could do was fight back. “Tell me, exactly, how I’ve been ‘avoiding’ you?”
The other frowned. “I never see you around anymore. And on the few times that I do, you always
try to make any sort of excuse to leave the area as fast as possible. Don’t think I don’t notice that!”
Impulse complained. “Not to mention you spend all of your free time on Empires visiting him.”
Tango chuckled darkly. “And you consider that avoiding people?”
“At the rate you’re doing it at? Yes.”
“Impulse!” The blaze hybrid was yelling now. “I go there so often because I love seeing him!
Because I love him!”
“You loved me! Didn’t you?? You loved me and Zedaph and you never spent half the amount of
time with the both of us combined as you do with him alone. And we weren’t even on a different
server like he is!”
“And so you think I’m spending more time on Empires specifically as a means of avoiding both of
you?” Tango bit back. “Self-centered much??”
Impulse paused at that, and then, he let out a sigh, his previously angered expression now
mellowing out to one of controlled frustration.
“Okay, f-fine.” He shrugged. “So maybe that’s not the only reason you leave…”
He looked away, eyes trailing the flowers that were planted. Tango didn’t like it when he got like
this. When they had been together, it wasn’t uncommon for Impulse to over-exert himself
emotionally on something small. Or in this case, something that had already been settled ages ago.
Impulse had made his decision and he certainly didn’t seem like he regretted it. But on some level,
Tango could at least understand the thought process behind his jealously. He could get why
Impulse felt betrayed at how close he was being with Jimmy. He was right, after all. He’d given
his current partner more love and attention than he ever did anyone else. It was bound to make him
wonder on if he’d ever been serious about their previous relationship to begin with.
But what made all of his accusations so unfair, was that he had been doing the exact same thing. If
anything, it was more noticeable to Tango since Impulse and his current partner both lived on the
same home server that he did, and obviously, were both a part of his friend group as well. Him and
Bdubs had been inseparable since the day they got back from Double Life, but he didn’t need to
point any of that out. He knew Impulse had already been thinking about it. He’d been thinking
about it for a long time.
“How is… he doing?” Tango asked gently, finally breaking the silence between them. You guys
are happy, aren’t you?”
Impulse let out a small, tired laugh, still directing his attention at the flowers instead of Tango.
“You don’t seem like you’d care, but, yes.” He smirked fondly, as if recalling every good memory
he’d ever had with Bdubs. “God yes….”
Tango smiled at that. He really did want Impulse to be happy. All he could have hoped for when
leaving his previous relationship was for both of his ex partners to find happiness elsewhere. It was
comforting to know that at least one of them was able to achieve that.
“It’s fine if you don’t believe me, but I’m glad you’re happy.”
Impulse didn’t say anything, but he didn’t look aggravated either. He simply let that statement hang
in the air, not giving his input on whether or not he thought it true.
He finally turned back to look at Tango, eyes much softer than they were before. “So, how about
your teammates then.” He asked. “Are they getting along, or?”
“What do you think?”
Impulse chuckled. “Ah…”
“Yeah…”
That was really all that needed saying. Everyone knew their team was doomed to struggle in the
whole getting-along department, but Tango didn’t think the other needed to know all the ugly
details of that situation.
Another silence passed.
“You wanna know why our build is so freakin tall?” Impulse said unexpectedly. But Tango didn’t
mind. He’d kill for anything to fill in the dead, awkward silence between them.
“I’m guessing it has something to do with Martyn?” He asked nonchalantly, recalling how he had
heard Impulse say something to him about avoiding Ren.
“Not sure what makes you say that…” Impulse raised an eyebrow and Tango panicked for a
second, remembering that the other wasn’t suppose to know he’d been spying on him.
“But, you guess right.” Impulse seemed to wave off his own suspicions, making Tango feel
relieved. “I told him it’d be better for all of us if we stuck together as a team. He actually didn’t put
up nearly as much of a fight on that as I thought he would, but that didn’t stop him from
complaining about it the whole time.”
Tango laughed a little. Martyn was always a drama king when it came to a lot of things. Whenever
something didn’t go his way, he’d be sure to make a scene about it, just as he had when Cleo
refused to be his soulmate during Double Life. He’d gone so far as to make his entire base heart-
shaped and station it right across from hers as a way of saying ‘sorry’. The poor guy never did get
her full attention though, regardless of how extra he was in going about it.
That’s not even taking into account how devoted he was to Ren during Third Life. Man got so into
the roleplay he was ready to do just about anything for his “king”. And as silly and fun as the
acting was for him and Ren, it inevitably ended up becoming something more than a game to the
both of them, and eventually—sometime during Last Life—more than even a close friendship.
It wasn’t even his relationship that got ruined in this case. And yet, Tango felt sad wondering
where all that closeness between the two had gone.
“When it came time for us to build a base, he said he wanted his house to be separate from ours so
that he wouldn’t have to be close to Ren.” Impulse went on while gazing upward at the build. “Ren
argued back that it would be the safest option for all of us to stick together under the same roof.
And you know what that petty son of a gun did after being told that?”
Tango’s eyes widened as he put the pieces together. “He didn’t…”
“He did.”
His mouth was agape, eyes darting back and forth between Impulse and the building. “All of it???”
He asked, still shocked.
“Most of it. Impulse laughed. “He wanted to put as much space between him and Ren as possible
while still abiding by what he said. Took all the resources he’d collected and has kept building
almost constantly since yesterday. That of course, didn’t stop Ren from trying to talk to him. He’s
actually the one who built the central staircase so he could have a way of getting up to Martyn’s
room. And now whenever he goes up and bothers the guy, Martyn just comes back down here to
me to complain about it.”
Tango rubbed at his eyes. This was crazy even for Martyn. “He’s insane.” He stated bluntly.
“Absolutely insane.”
“Mmm. Maybe.” Impulse said calmly. “But you know what I think? I think he still wants Ren to
pay attention to him.”
“What in the world makes you say that?”
He shrugged, smiling. “Well, if he’d wanted to go off on his own during this game, he could have.
It’s not like me and Ren could have done anything to stop him. Heck, if he wanted out altogether,
he could have just walked into a pond and refuse to resurface until all three of us were dead. Sure
would have been a lot easier than the show he’s been putting on.”
He crossed his arms over his chest, scanning over the garden once more. “If anything, all this effort
he’s been putting in only proves that he cares. They do say the opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s
indifference. And I have never seen a single soul put more effort into being dramatic about his so-
called “hate” for his ex partner than Martyn Littlewood.”
Tango just stood in silence at that. Impulse did have a point. Martyn had to have stuck around for
one reason or another, and that reason clearly outweighed his anger towards his ex.
Oddly enough, this all made him think of Scott again. Tango had been thinking about him a lot
lately. Once again, the story that Impulse just gave seemed far too familiar to him. Martyn could
have left the game whenever, so could have Scott. So if Martyn was potentially sticking around
just for the sake of getting his ex’s attention, then what the heck was Scott still around for?
He’d never truly considered it before. Why didn’t he leave? Was someone else keeping him here?
Did he owe Grian a favor? Surely that wouldn’t even matter to him under these circumstances,
would it?
Tango suddenly felt hot, much hotter than he did a second ago. Dwelling on all this was starting to
worry him. Maybe that’s why his mind had repressed it, but it just didn’t make any sense. Since his
injuries would only get his teammates killed, did that mean Scott was only staying in the game as a
courtesy to him and Jimmy? Why would he do that? Scott clearly hated him. But Jimmy…
Tango’s body stiffened. His train of thought was approaching a very unfavorable conclusion.
“Speaking of which, how this whole garden even came to be is actually almost as funny as the
tower.” Impulse continued, nearly making Tango jump out of his skin. He turned to look at the
other, almost too glad to put his mind elsewhere.
“You see,” Impulse went on. “when Martyn started building up to avoid Ren, Ren figured he could
still get his attention by doing something down here. So he decorated the front and back lawn with
all sorts of flowers. Red tulips, apparently, are Martyn’s favorite. So he did use a lot of those.”
Tango smirked slightly. “It’s almost the same as what Martyn did during Double Life to try and get
Cleo’s attention.”
“ Pft— yeah, almost.” The other laughed. “Actually, similarly enough, the only part of the garden
he didn’t cover in tulips, was this whole area right here. Impulse gestured to an array of roses that
circled around them. Tango hadn’t noticed them before Impulse pointed them out, but he could
easily distinguish them now.
“He made it so that it would look like a heart from where Martyn’s room was at the top.” The
other finished.
“Oh yeah,” Tango said, eyes following the trail of red flowers. “I can totally see that now.”
As his eyes reached the trail’s endpoint, it was only then that he realized him him and Impulse
were standing directly in the middle of said heart.
Tango started to feel upset again.
“I missed talking with you.” Impulse said suddenly. There wasn’t any cold or accusing undertone
in his words, just a simple, perhaps true statement.
Tango looked him in the eyes, frowning. “I-“ He started, but his words got caught in his throat.
How could he respond? Would it be wrong to say he missed it too? It’s not as though it was a lie,
but it was different. He wanted Impulse back in his life as a friend, but he knew that such an
arrangement—even if both of them wanted it—would never be perfect. Not with the kind of history
that they shared. The road towards any kind of healing between them would be long and terrifying.
Which was primarily why Tango had been so hesitant to start on it.
But perhaps, even if it could never be perfect between them, it was still worth working towards.
His relationship with Jimmy even, was far from perfect. Not to mention, under the circumstances in
which they’d fallen, it took a world of fighting just to get to where they were now. But regardless
of that, he wouldn’t give it up for anything.
“I’m sorry.” Tango finally got out, still struggling with every word he spoke as he opened up to the
other, telling him the full truth. “It’s just—I’ve been too scared to do anything since- since Zed
started that whole incident—w-with everyone on the Hermitcraft…”
Impulse sighed, looking to the ground. “We started that. Let’s not kid ourselves.”
“Yeah,” Tango agreed. “we did kind of bring that on ourselves, didn’t we?”
Impulse hummed. “Seems like the only hermits who were on our side during that whole fiasco
were the ones who had also participated in the Life games.”
“Exactly.” Tango agreed. “They were the only ones who could possibly understand.”
“I still can’t bring myself to blame the others though.” Impulse looked to the ground, muttering. “I
hope they never become capable of understanding our situation at all.”
There was a beat of silence again. But this time, it was more comforting than awkward.
Tango felt stupid for not approaching Impulse sooner. What was it, even, that made him think that
they should never talk to each other ever again just because they broke up? They’d been friends
long ago, before they were in any kind of romantic relationship. Perhaps, they could just do that
again. Impulse seemed like he wanted that. Hell, maybe Tango wanted that too. He could at least
give it a try.
“If you want to start talking again, I’d be fine with that.” He murmured nervously. “Or, even if
you wanna hang out sometimes too. Maybe just do something fun…”
Impulse looked at him, eyes full of surprise—and possibly hope as well. “Really?” He said,
chuckling. “You sure it’s not just gonna end in you running away again?”
The blaze hybrid smiled. “No, I won’t.” He promised. “I know things can never go back to the way
they were, but after everything that’s happened… I think we’re ready to be in each other’s lives
again.”
He watched as the other smiled brightly, taking his offer up with hopeful intent.
“I think so too.”
They both stood there for a moment longer, each having likely felt the most at peace with their
relationship since the ending of Double Life. It felt so good to be talking to Impulse again. Maybe,
just maybe, if he could curb some of the damage done to this relationship, he could also heal his
other ones.
It was all too good—for all of five seconds.
Two loud screams suddenly sounded off from above. Both Tango and Impulse shot their heads up
towards the top of the skyscraper. They were so close to the building that they weren’t able to see
the top floor clearly from where they were standing. But not a moment later, two figures: Jimmy
and Ren, came into view. They were both falling in mid-air and fast approaching him and Impulse.
Tango only had two seconds to comprehend what was happening before everything went black and
both he and Impulse disappeared at the exact same time their teammates hit the ground.
Tango woke up in the bed in his and Jimmy’s interior base. The last place he had set his spawn at.
Immediately, he sat up.
“NononoNONONO-“ He yelled to himself continuously while whipping out his comm and turning
it on.
He’d forgotten. Through all of the emotions he was experiencing upon finally facing Impulse
again, he’d forgotten about the entire reason he had been forced into talking with him in the first
place. This was bad. Oh god, this was so bad.
Maybe Impulse would understand. Maybe he didn’t even take it the wrong way at all. It all
happened so fast; he could have been confused as to what even went down.
Tango opened up chat, holding his breath.
SolidarityGaming fell from a high place
Tango died
Renthedog fell from a high place
ImpulseSV died
<BdoubleO100> Impulse are you okay? What the HECK is going on?
<ZombieCleo> Um, guys???
Just when Tango didn’t think things could get any more hectic, yet another death message popped
up.
Renthedog was killed by Solidaritygaming
InTheLittleWood died
He waited in uncertainty for Jimmy’s death message to appear.
But it never did.
After a few minutes had passed, Tango felt relieved enough to look away from his comm. Thank
goodness. At least one thing went right today.
Then, his device went off once more. A new message appearing from Impulse.
<ImpulseSV> Oh. I see now
<ImpulseSV> Of course you wouldn’t just talk to me because you missed me. You wanted
something out of it. You wanted to distract me
<ImpulseSV> Well, it certainly worked
Tango was gripping his comm so tightly he thought it might shatter.
<ImpulseSV> Well played
He started shaking his head, typing furiously into the chat.
<Tango> Impulse I’m so sorry! I wasn’t trying to distract you!
<Tango> Well—technically I was at first
<Tango> But not near the end! I really do want to talk to you more! That wasn’t a lie!!
No response. Only dead silence.
Tango couldn’t stand having to talk like this in a public chat, but all private settings had been
disabled for the duration of the game. Oh god…
<Tango> Just let me explain. Let’s meet up somewhere and I can explain everything
No response. Tango felt hot tears stream down his face and watched them drip onto his screen.
Impulse didn’t trust him anymore. Hell, he probably barely did while they were talking, but
whatever sort of trust he did have must have completely vanished now thanks to him. After this,
Impulse might never talk to him again. He tried one last time to get the other’s attention.
<Tango> Impulse, please.
He waited a few moments longer.
But nothing came.
The tears just kept coming. He was so close. So close to fixing things with Impulse—or at least
taking the first step in fixing things! He should have warned him about Jimmy and Scott. Should
have messaged them and called everything off. If Scott wouldn’t have listened to him at least
Jimmy would have. He could have prevented this if he just wasn’t so stupid. If he had only
remembered!
More messages spilled in.
<Grian> Um, is everything okay with you guys?
<Etho> Yeah, oof…
<LDShadowLady> Tango, I’m coming over, okay? And I’m bringing Pearl too
He threw his comm to the other side of the bed. He didn’t care what anyone had to say anymore.
Nothing mattered. He just wanted to spend what little time he had before Jimmy and Scott
eventually got here to let his tears flow in peace.
He wanted to blame Scott for this. He was after all, the one who pushed him into the open in the
first place. But he found it hard to pin anything on him this time. Not after he’d had so many
opportunities to prevent this himself. He didn’t have to go along with anything, but he did. He
could have just stood by on his request not to get involved with his ex, but after being forced to
encounter him, he simply went along with it, figuring that things had already gotten as bad as they
could get for him anyway.
But he was wrong. He was so, so wrong. He didn’t think he could have damaged his relationship
with Impulse any further, but he did.
It hurt to think about it any longer. All Tango could do was lie there as more messages sounded off
on his comm. Feeling a great determination to shut off his brain, the blaze hybrid simply ignored
them all, curled up in a ball, and closed his eyes.
Chapter End Notes
Another broken relationship has joined the game. How might this one turn out…?
Split perspective is on its way! Next chapter will give some context on Scott and
Jimmy’s end and how it led up to him and Ren falling off the top floor
Scott - Green
Jimmy - Red
Tango - Yellow
Cleo - Green
Bdubs - Green
Etho - Green
Grian - Green
Scar - Yellow
Bigb - Green
Ren - Green
Martyn - Yellow
Impulse - Yellow
Pearl - Green
Joel - Green
Lizzie - Green
Storm the Tower
Chapter Summary
The encounter with Martyn’s team from Scott’s perspective.
Chapter Notes
Floor after floor was passed swiftly as both Scott and Jimmy made their way up the central
staircase. Other than the first few levels, which held typical items such as the team’s nether portal
or some chests, the rooms that they encountered as they went farther up continued to become more
repetitive, each of them looking like an exact empty copy of the last one. What was even the point
of all this? Why make so many floors if you’ve got nothing to store in them? Was Martyn’s team
just trying to be funny?
That last one might explain it, actually. It wasn’t uncommon for players to mess around and pull
some ridiculous shenanigans like this, but whenever they did do such things, it usually served at
least some kind of purpose. Whether that be Ren getting Martyn to take his yellow life as an insane
trust exercise in Third Life, Scar stealing the enchanting table to start a business in Last Life, or
Joel trying to burn down everyone’s builds as a form of revenge in Double Life, there was always
some sort of objective in everyone’s weirdness. Some method to the madness. But if that was the
case, then what were all of these dammed floors for??
Scott’s breathing hitched as he gripped the railing at his side, knuckles white and legs shaky. “Can
we— cough— can we just stop for like—a minute? Please??” He yelled up at the canary, straining
to get every word out.
Jimmy must have been just as exhausted, because instead of giving a verbal answer, he simply
collapsed on the stairs just a few steps above from where Scott was.
Taking that as a ‘yes’, Scott made his way upward, much slower this time, and sat next to Jimmy
on the same step. The other seemed to flinch at the closeness, but was quick to go back to ignoring
him, opting to gaze out one of the many windows instead.
Only the sky was visible from where they were sitting. Although, Scott figured that if they were to
approach one of the window’s, they’d be able to get a clear view of the ground easily. The fact that
they could only see sky at this level however, was a good sign. So long as they couldn’t see
Impulse outside, Impulse probably couldn’t see them inside either. They were safe at this height.
He wondered if Tango was still out there distracting him. He figured it didn’t matter much if he
was. Regardless of how this job went, they’d inevitably have to book it out of there once they were
done, seeing as the three teammates had likely set their spawn somewhere in this base and could be
coming after them as soon as they respawned.
Scott looked back to Jimmy, who was now leaning the whole of his upper back against the stairs as
if it were an uncomfortable beach chair.
“You tired?” He spoke through struggled breaths, still fairly exhausted himself.
Jimmy didn’t respond. He just looked away and continued panting.
Scott narrowed his eyes. “I sure hope your silence is cause you’re catching your breath and not
because you’re still mad at me?” He stared questioningly.
The other continued breathing deeply for a few more seconds, before finally seeming to catch his
breath. “Why can’t it be both?” He responded sarcastically.
Scott threw his head back dramatically. “Oh my god- you act like I murdered him!” He said,
exasperated.
“Well, he probably wishes he was dead right about now.”
Scott rolled his eyes. “Is it really so awkward for him to just hold a conversation with the guy?”
“Yes!” Jimmy yelled.
“Why??”
The other took a pause, his expression softening ever so slightly as his eyes seemed to dart across
Scott’s face as if trying to analyze his reaction to the whole situation.
“Do you really not know?” He asked hesitantly. “Like, anything?”
Scott furrowed his brows, confused now more than before. “What’s that suppose to mean?” He
asked.
Jimmy held his gaze on the other, before looking to the ground and massaging his face in his hands
as if fed up with everything. “Well, at first I’d assumed you didn’t know much.” He started, lifting
his head back up. “But then we ran into Impulse and you seemed so determined to make him the
one we attacked—which I could at least understand the mentality behind that at first—but then you
made Tango talk to him, which was so much worse than having him just attack him out of the blue.
So…”
“So…?” Scott leaned forward.
“So,” Jimmy continued. “I don’t know if it’s the haziness of being a red life that’s making me not
think straight, or if I’ve just made a habit of assuming the worst out of you, but after that stunt you
pulled, I was half certain you had just been feigning ignorance to the both of us just so you could
have an excuse to mentally torture Tango.”
Scott leaned back at that, more than a little surprised at what he was hearing. “What on earth made
you think that??” He asked.
“Other than the obvious fact that you clearly don’t like him?” Jimmy stated before continuing.
“Well, first it was the way you smiled when you pushed him, like you’d just been itching to do it
that whole time we were hiding out.” He eased his lower face onto both of his hands as if in deep
thought, elbows resting on his knees. “But I think what really got me thinking about it was when I
explained part of the situation between Tango and Impulse to you and you didn’t even bat an eye,
like you either already knew about what happened between them or you just didn’t give a damn.”
He rubbed the back of his neck, looking away from the other once more. “Although, in hindsight, I
guess it could have just as easily been the latter.”
Scott gawked at him. “I didn’t realize you saw me as some jerk who’s only in this game to bring
people down.” He bit.
“Well why are you in this game then?” Jimmy asked unexpectedly.
Scott froze in place suddenly, clenching his jaw. Did he even know the answer to that question? He
should, shouldn’t he?
It was right in front of him, after all.
He tried to move his mouth again, to say something—anything.
He stayed silent, turning away from the other quietly.
Another moment passed, and Jimmy sighed. “Fine then.” He said. “How about I keep my secrets
and you can keep yours then. Deal?”
Scott didn’t verbally reply. Just nodded his head without making eye contact.
There was a bit more silence before Jimmy went on.
“If you want to ask Impulse yourself, then go ahead.” He spoke, not faltering on a single word.
“But Tango’s stayed silent about it for months. That, and it’s not even my drama to spill.” He
looked at the other, sincerity flashing behind his eyes. “I could never do that to him…”
Scott sat there for a moment longer before nodding his head slightly. He figured that was fair
enough. If he was desperate enough to know, he’d bother Impulse about it. But he wasn’t.
So, seeing as his not-so-burning question was going to be left unanswered by the canary, he opted
to end the conversation and start moving again.
“I think we’ve taken a long enough break.” He breathed, standing back up. He took a single step up
the stairs before looking back at the other, who was still seated.
“Wait…” Jimmy said, turning to look up at him. “We shouldn’t go any further just yet. There’s
something you need to know.”
Scott raised an eyebrow, letting him go on. The tone in the other’s voice already having him
invested in what he might say next. Perhaps he wanted to talk more about this topic after all?
“Martyn has like, really good hearing.” Jimmy said casually.
Well, Scott definitely hadn’t expected him to say anything like that.
“Huh?”
Jimmy stood up. “We won’t be able to sneak up on him once we pass the next few floors. He’ll be
able to hear us coming up by that point.”
“Uh…” Scott said. “Explain?”
Jimmy rubbed the back of his neck with his hand, shrugging. It’s a really long story, but let’s just
say, ever since Evo, no one’s been able to sneak past him, like—at all.”
Scott blinked slowly. He knew the gist of what had happened on Evo from the bits and pieces that
Jimmy had told him about back when they were together. Overall however, the canary seemed to
be very closed off about the whole thing.
So, figuring that trying to pry any more details out of him then and there would be futile, Scott
made the decision to take the other on his word.
“Alright then.” He breathed. “What do you suggest we do about that?” Scott was hoping Jimmy
would of had a plan for this if he was already aware of Martyn’s abilities.
And he’d be right.
Scott watched as Jimmy summoned a few slimeballs from his inventory along with a fairly large
pile of tangled up string. “I was planning on untangling the rest of this as a distraction, but if this
plan goes well then I guess I won’t need it.” He said while transforming the string into wool. He
then set down a crafting table and, in one swift motion, turned it into thick slabs of carpet that
appeared to manifest in the shape of a footprint.
What he did next was odd. Jimmy took the slime and spread it across the bottom side of the newly
made slips of carpet. Then, lifted his foot up and slapped the sticky end of it to the bottom of his
shoe. “This was a trick me and Pearl came up with back on Evo.” He told Scott as he repeated the
process on his other shoe. “Certainly made pranking Martyn a lot easier, that’s for sure.” Jimmy
then lifted his foot back up, stomping it hard on the step below him. It made a very dull and quiet
‘thud’ noise, but that was it.
“These’ll work for the next few floors.” Jimmy went on, handing Scott his own pair of shoe-
silencers. “But once we reach the floor he’s on, it won’t matter how quiet we’re being.“
“Why’s that?” Scott asked, reaching for the carpeting.
“Our heartbeats.” Jimmy replied. “He can hear the heartbeat of any person within about a five foot
radius. So our only option will be to get as close as we can to him and Ren, and then rush them
before they can think.”
Scott had finished sticking the carpet to his shoes, proceeding to do what Jimmy did and stomping
to test them. They worked all the same, giving off hardly any noise whatsoever under the force.
“You know, we wouldn’t have to be doing all this if we’d just gone and attacked Impulse.” He said
bitingly.
Surprisingly, Jimmy didn’t respond to that. He simply continued messing with the carpet on his
shoes, making sure the adhesive was sticking. His mildly frustrated expression remained the same.
Berating him further, Scott realized, wasn’t going to do anything now. He’d already made his
choice in avoiding Impulse and was clearly hell bent on sticking with that decision.
“The carpeting was a good idea.” He spoke once more after a moment of silence had passed.
Jimmy looked up from his shoes, expression now one of surprise.
“Um… thanks…” he said hesitantly. He clearly hadn’t been expecting praise for anything. Scott
couldn’t help but feel upset that their relationship had gotten to a point where receiving any note of
positivity from him came as a surprise. A quick and painful thought crossed his mind in that
moment. That if the version of himself that existed six months ago were to see how he talked to
Jimmy now, he would probably break down in tears.
Scott swallowed down a lump in his throat. “Hey,” He continued, trying to move ahead on the
subject. “Got any of that string left?”
“Uh, yeah.” Jimmy said, pulling some of the scraps he didn’t use and tossing them to Scott. Scott
took them and went to the table, combining them with some sticks he had to make a bow, which he
handed back to Jimmy.
“Have any arrows on you too?”
“Only a few from caving.” The other said, taking the weapon.
“That works.” Scott stored his remaining items away just as Jimmy was clearing up the table.
“Here’s what I think we should do. You have a pretty good idea of Martyn’s hearing range, right?”
He asked.
“I guess, yeah?”
“Then we should try to get as close to Ren as possible while avoiding Martyn.” He started. “But if
they happen to be in close proximity to each other when we get up there, then we’ll have to keep
our distance. You let me know when we’re getting too close, alright?”
“Okay… and how should I do that?”
“I don’t know.” Scott shrugged. “Just tap my shoulder, or something, but make sure to do it
quietly.” He started walking again and the other followed. “But when we do get close enough, you
should aim for Ren and fire off some arrows first. As many as you can. That’ll ensure that you’re
able to attack first from a safe distance and that Ren’s health gets as low as possible before the both
of them start fighting back.”
Jimmy shot him a questioning look. “And what’ll you be doing?” He asked.
Scott put a hand to his chest. “I’ll be waiting on Ren or Martyn to harm you back. Once they do I’ll
be able to start attacking them myself without breaking the rules.”
Jimmy looked at him for a second, and then nodded his head. “Alright, I guess.” He responded.
“Seems like a solid plan.” He took another step up the stairs before stopping once more. “Wait, we
should probably turn off our comms for now as well. Don’t want them making any unexpected
noises while we’re up there.”
Scott nodded. “Right, good catch.” He took his own out and shut it off completely. As did Jimmy.
Deciding that they were finally good to go, the two picked up the pace and began running up the
winding staircase once more.
A few floors away from the top one, and Scott felt Jimmy tap him on the shoulder. He turned his
head back, seeing the other make a zipper motion across his lips with his fingers.
‘No talking’.
Scott got the message.
They were between floors on the stairs between the highest and second highest floor when they
finally heard the sound of conversation. Scott felt Jimmy tap him once more. He knew this time
that it meant they were within heartbeat range. Scott carefully stepped to the side so as to let
Jimmy go ahead of him. He watched as the canary pulled out his bow and looked upward, trying to
get an idea of where to aim based on the sounds they were making. He was in the middle of
notching an arrow when the yelling got louder and Scott heard something shatter, making the both
of them jolt.
Jimmy paused mid-action. And it was only now that Scott was really starting to pay attention to
what the two were saying.
“Did you seriously just throw a potion of harming at me? Real mature.” He heard Ren say. “Ugh,
now the whole room smells like gunpowder…”
“Why won’t you just admit you’re a liar??” Martin yelled back.
“Why won’t you just admit you’re being paranoid?”

“I. AM. NOT!”
Another crash sounded. This time, Scott honestly couldn’t tell what it was that got thrown, but it
sounded heavy.
“Martyn… Baby—“
“Stop calling me that!” Martyn interrupted. “I’m still mad at you!”
“For what??” Ren asked. “I’ve told you a million times. I didn’t cheat on you with Bigb! Just cause
everyone else messed around with their soulmates during Double Life doesn’t mean I did too!”
Scott cringed. He remembered this having been a problem for the two during the end of Double
Life, but he hadn’t known that it was still going on. Were they really still doing this back-and-
fourth nonsense? After six months?? Well, he supposed he couldn’t blame them for it. Not when
he was still going through his own grieving process, which—thanks to Grian—had now become
increasingly more difficult after he’d teamed him up with his ex.
Scott turned his head to the man in question, wondering when he was going to take the shot.
Although, he couldn’t blame him for being as invested in whatever the heck was going on between
Ren and Martyn as he was. When he looked at Jimmy’s face however, he didn’t see a look of
intrigue, only one of frozen terror.
He nearly opened his mouth to ask him what the matter was, but quickly remembered that they
shouldn’t be speaking. He was honestly impressed that they were able to get this close to Martyn to
begin with if his hearing really was as good as Jimmy said it was. Although, that might just be due
to all of the yelling having canceled out whatever small noises they might have been making.
“Oh my god—there you go again! Lying to me!” He heard the blonde yelling once more with a
concerning shake to his voice.
“You seem so certain that I’m lying, but what in the world would even make you think that?” Ren
yelled back. “Seriously! Martyn—I’m not lying to you!”
There was the briefest moment of silence before Martyn spoke again.
“Get out.” He spat coldly.
“Martyn-“
“Don’t make me ask again like yesterday, Ren.” He raised his voice once more. “GET. OUT.”
Jimmy’s face was straight pale at this point. Scott wanted more than anything to ask him what he
was so spooked over. All at once however, he seemed to snap back to reality as soon as he heard
the sound of footsteps walking towards the both of them. Ren appeared to have obeyed his ex and
was heading for the stairs. Jimmy went back to holding up his bow, pulling back the arrow he had,
and then—
Snap!
He let go, firing the arrow straight into the chest of a very unsuspecting Ren.
The force of the arrow from that close of a distance knocked him directly onto his back. Scott
figured that now was as good a time as any to rush Martyn, but Jimmy was already way ahead of
him, climbing up the remaining stairs and firing another arrow at Ren as he was trying to get up.
“Woahwoahwoahwoah-“ Martyn said repeatedly while holding his hands up in defense. “You
should not be here—nope!”
Scott had nearly forgotten that being wary of red lives was normally the default mindset players
had towards them in these games. He couldn’t help but find it funny how this was just now the first
time Jimmy’s red life status was actually evoking fear from someone.
“Sorry guys.” Jimmy spoke, finally using his voice again. “It’s nothing personal.” He took out his
sword and went to swing it at Ren, who was back on his feet now.
“Hey!” Both Ren and Martyn yelled simultaneously. In an instant, Martyn summoned his own
weapon, going to swing it right at Jimmy before Scott threw himself in front of it, taking the hit
instead. The blade nipped him slightly, but the damage he took now allowed him to fight back as a
green life instead of having to wait for Jimmy to take damage himself.
“This works too.” Scott grinned, brandishing his sword and clashing it with Martyn’s, starting a
battle of his own to go along with Jimmy and Ren’s.
In the moment, all he needed to focus on was keeping the blonde at bay so as to give Jimmy all the
space he needed to go in for the kill. But as he chanced a look back at the canary, he started to
worry that a 1v1 with Ren would still be an uphill battle for him, even despite the jump he got on
him in the beginning.
All of a sudden, as if reality was acting out his thoughts, Scott saw Ren aim his next cut directly at
Jimmy’s lower arm, forcing him to drop the weapon he was holding. Ren then took that
opportunity to swing his sword directly into the canary’s side, knocking him back and making his
body skid across the floor.
Scott watched this as he took another hit to the shoulder from Martyn. Just as he was contemplating
trying to get away from him altogether to go help his teammate, Jimmy quickly picked himself
back up, a fierce look in his eyes, and ran the full force of his body directly into Ren’s, grabbing
him in a bear hug and forcing his back against one of the nearby large windows.
Scott realized what Jimmy was trying to do. In one swift motion, he took a dive under Martyn’s
sword and ran towards Jimmy, aiming a final hit on Ren’s upper body and knocking him
backwards out of the window completely.
Unfortunately, Scott hadn’t noticed that Ren had sunken a clawed hand into Jimmy’s side—which
dragged him out the window with him.
He tried to grab at his teammate’s arm, but the weight of two people made it quickly slip from his
grasp and before he knew it, they were both gone.
Scott heard a yelp of shock come from the other end of the room. In half a second, Martyn had
sprinted to the window. Not even concerning himself with Scott anymore, he leaned half his body
out along with him, both of the players looking down in mutual terror.
It took a few seconds for Jimmy and Ren to reach the ground from that height. But when they did,
Tango and Impulse, who were evidently still chatting on the lawn, both vanished instantaneously.
Scott turned to look at Martyn, who looked at him back. They both then broke into a run down the
stairs, Scott skipping two or three at a time, even if it caused him some damage. The only thing he
was able to think about the entire way down being how frustratingly unpredictable these stupid
game rules were. On the upside, they were probably able to reset Jimmy’s bloodlust through that
one kill. On the downside however, they’d missed their initial target completely and now had a
dead Tango instead. Great. Well, at least that would show him for refusing to take the easy route in
attacking Impulse.
Scott had managed to run ahead of Martyn at some point, skidding down the steps and passing
floor after floor just as he had on the way up. Impulse’s room had apparently been among some of
the lower levels, Scott had passed it, briefly noticing a groggy-looking Impulse sitting up in bed
with a rightful look of confusion on his face. He locked eyes with him for half a second before
uttering a quick “Sorry-!”, and continued his descent down the seemingly infinite set of stairs.
Upon finally reaching ground level, Scott could hear two voices coming from outside. He ran out
the entrance, seeing Ren and Jimmy still locked in a struggle. He figured that their hearts must
have reset after both of their phantom-deaths and now they were back to square one.
He took out his sword once more, ready to help, but at that point, Jimmy was able to pin down Ren
and plunge the axe he still had directly into him, making him flash red and knocking him down to
zero hearts once again.
Martyn, Scott noticed, who had been coming up right behind him down the stairs, vanished
completely.
They’d finally gotten him.
Ren however, now had his hearts reset once more, while Jimmy must have been just barely
clinging on to the remainder of his.
Scott ran forward, reaching Jimmy and frantically grabbing his arm to pull him forward while Ren
was still recovering. “Good job.” He said. “Now come on! We gotta go!”
“Way ahead of you.” Jimmy replied, picking himself up and running alongside Scott. The both of
them seeming to realize that all three members of Martyn’s team were about to be coming right
after them.
Without another word, they made a mad dash off the top of the mountain, neither of them daring to
look back.
Chapter End Notes
Imagine getting all the way down those stairs just to get killed right as you reach the
bottom and respawn back at the top. Martyn must really be going through it rn
Close
Chapter Summary
Jimmy and Scott get stuck somewhere while running away. Jimmy knows something
about Martyn that he’s not letting on about. Lizzie and Pearl come to visit them.
Chapter Notes
They ran down the mountain, skidding along the snowy hill with the carpeting still on their shoes
making it hard not to slip. Scott noticed that Jimmy nearly fell over himself completely at one
point, but almost instinctively, he was able to grab onto his hand to keep him from falling again.
The other maintained a firm grip on him, not seeming to want to let go anytime soon.
Eventually, they made it back into the forest, having circled around the planes biome completely so
as to not get caught out in the open. They continued running for a while longer before Scott finally
spoke up again.
“I think we’ve lost them.” He said through panting breath.
Jimmy just shook his head. “No,” He breathed heavily. “with Martyn’s hearing and Ren’s sense of
smell, I wouldn’t count on it.”
Scott figured he had a point. He looked around the area as the both of them continued to catch their
breath.
“I think I know where we are.” He spoke, walking off to the side in another direction. He
recognized the pattern of the pine trees easily, and if his guess was correct…
“There.” He pointed to a familiar thicket of plants that Cleo had yet to remove, cautiously peeling a
branch back to come face to face with a very deep, very familiar ravine. “We can hide in there.” He
finished.
“Uh, I don’t know about that…” Jimmy said, running a hand over his shoulder. “We might be
cornering ourselves there.”
“Well, it’s better than leading them back to one of our bases.” Scott replied while walking along
the edge of the ravine towards a small stream of water flowing from out the side of it. Without
waiting for anything, he jumped down into the puddle it made on the ground, feet splashing in the
water. “Are you coming, or not?” He asked, waving back up at Jimmy.
He watched as The other simply sighed and then followed his lead, jumping down into the wet
surface and using the water to break his fall. “What now?” He asked. And in that moment, the both
of them began hearing several sets of footsteps approaching.
“I saw them go in this direction.” Came Ren’s voice from above.
“Ugh- did they really have to take both of our lives?” Martyn’s voice sounded.
Without thinking too hard about it, Scott grabbed Jimmy by the arm once more and dragged him
with him into the waterfall.
On the other end of it was a small, but dry opening encased in the surrounding rock. They both slid
inside the crevice, Scott making sure not to move his feet so as to not splash any water around.
Jimmy seemed to be standing as still as possible as well. Although it’s not as though they could
move much if they wanted to.
Come to think of it, the other might have been a little too close to him. Even in the darkness, Scott
was close enough to Jimmy to make out each of the individual features of his face. After all, there
wasn’t much elsewhere to look other than directly in front of him.
They stood as still as possible, but for as quiet as their breathing was, Scott was still close enough
to feel the other’s breath against him, bodies barely an inch appart. As he continued to observe
each detail of Jimmy’s face, he wondered if the canary could hear his heart, nearly beating out of
his chest, or if he’d be able to hear Jimmy’s, if he could only lean just a bit closer…
There was more muffled talking from above. Then, the three pairs of footsteps could be heard once
more, each seeming to have made the jump over the ravine, feet landing harshly back onto the
ground.
“They’re probably up ahead.” Scott just barely heard Impulse say.

A few more rustling sounds came from them. The sounds began to fade in another direction. And
then, they were gone.
Another minute or so passed. At least, that’s what Scott estimated. To him however, they might as
well have been hours.
He continued staring dead ahead at Jimmy, the other doing the same. Neither of them having
moved an inch. All he could hear was the quiet rush of water and his own heart pounding in his
chest. Whether that be from running for so long or from being this close to Jimmy, he didn’t know
for sure.
Scott couldn’t explain it, but he felt as though he was waiting for something to happen. Anything.
Martyn’s group had to have been gone by now. Him and Jimmy were probably safe to come out.
Another minute passed.
They were safe. There wasn’t a threat anymore.
And another.
So why wasn’t he moving? Why wasn’t Jimmy moving?
Two minutes.
Why were they still looking at each other? Why weren’t either of them getting out?
Time felt as though it were frozen in place. And the longer Scott stared into the other’s eyes, the
more he began to remember. All those times they’d been this close before, closer than this. Every
time he’d held Jimmy, every time he’d made him laugh, smile, blush. It was like his mind was
driven by instinct. Like it was refusing to let his body function until something was corrected here.
He was scared, suddenly. He didn’t want Jimmy to leave. If he left, the moment would be over.
He’d lose him again.
Scott’s breath hitched, and he suddenly did something he couldn’t explain. He mind was hazy and
irrational as he did it, but it still happened all the same.
He leaned in.
Jimmy’s eyes shot open even wider and in a second Scott saw him force his body out of the
crevice, noticeably scraping a section of his arm in between the tight space in his haste.
Scott was quick to follow, ducking under the small waterfall and stepping back into daylight. He
saw Jimmy a few feet ahead of him, back turned to him with a hand on his chest breathing heavily,
as if the walls he was just enclosed in had been suffocating him.
Scott—had no idea why he’d done that. He rubbed his face in his hands, mentally slapping himself
for what he may or may not have just attempted. What the hell even was that? What did Jimmy
think it was? Maybe he just thought he was moving to get out. It was dark in there, after all. Who’s
to say for certain what happened?
He just needed to pretend it didn’t happen. Maybe, more for his own sake than for Jimmy’s.
Carefully, anxiously, he walked over to him and gently put a hand on his shoulder.
“Are you okay?” He asked hesitantly, trying to acknowledge the events of the last few minutes as
little as possible.
Jimmy shot his head around to look at him, brows furrowed in a look of terrified panic and
concern. Scott’s heart dropped. He knew that look. Jimmy was trying to hold back tears. For what
reason? He couldn’t say for certain.
“I’m—I’m f-fine…” He said in a panicked tone, voice shaking slightly as he spoke. He went to
grab Scott’s hand, and maybe it was just his imagination, but Jimmy seemed to clutch it in his own
and give it a soft squeeze as he moved it off his shoulder.
He had turned around completely now, looking Scott in the eyes. “I-I definitely feel a lot less angry
now, that’s for sure.” He said quietly, quickly changing the subject. “Don’t feel nearly as great of
an urge to kill people as I did a while ago. So, that’s good.”
Scott breathed a sigh of relief. “That is good.” He agreed, looking up past Jimmy and across the
edge of the ravine. He let the other catch his breath for a few more seconds before speaking again.
“We should probably get going.”
“Yeah.” Jimmy spoke. “Tango probably respawned back at our base on the other end of the map-“
He paused for a second, eyes darting across Scott’s face as he began clutching the hem of his shirt.
“Actually, if you just want to head back to your place I-I get it…” He put another hand up to grab
at his injured arm awkwardly, avoiding eye contact with the other by looking to the side.
Scott recognized that he was trying to avoid pressuring him to return to the build he’d tried to
destroy. He felt somewhat touched that he’d even offer that option to him, seeing how dangerous it
would be to let him go out alone now, with Martyn and his team still out looking for them after
they’d wandered fairly close to his cabin no less. The fact that they had crossed the ravine was
confirmation enough that they were likely headed in that direction.
“No.” Scott shook his head. “I’ll follow you back to yours.” He bit his lip slightly. “Maybe see
how Tango is holding up too?”
Jimmy gave him a surprised look, seemingly hesitant to respond.
Scott rolled his eyes. “I won’t burn it down this time, okay? Promise.” He said.
Jimmy blushed slightly at that. “I didn’t think you would—but, fine.” He stated. “Let’s head back
there together then.”
Scott nodded, smirking ever so slightly as he made a a gesture for the other to follow him.
Together, they began walking towards a corner of the ravine. Scott’s messy configuration of
wooden planks that he had stacked up to climb out of there were still there from the the last time he
was here, still piled up in a messy but usable staircase formation.
The two followed the planks and climbed out completely, having made sure to keep an eye out for
any of Martyn’s team members while doing so.
Oddly enough, the walk back to Jimmy’s base wasn’t as awkward as Scott thought it’d be. The two
were in no way lacking in things to discuss given everything that had just happened.
“I didn’t meant to shove you out the window back there.” Scott said at one point. “I didn’t realize
Ren was actually clinging onto you.”
Jimmy smiled and shook his head. “No, no, I was trying to do the exact same thing. And I hadn’t
realized that he was going to take me down with him either.”
He laughed a little at that, and Scott smiled back. “Well, I’m still sorry it happened.” He continued.
“But hey, at least you managed to get him twice in the end, right? I didn’t think you’d be able to
recover that quickly after a fall like that, but the way you were able to overpower Ren was—really
impressive.”
Jimmy blushed some more and looked away, still smiling. “Yeah, him and Martyn though,
wow…”
Scott hummed in agreement. “I feel kinda bad for listening in. I don’t think we were suppose to
hear any of that.” He laughed.
He looked back at the canary, but noticed that his smile had faded. Scott wondered if he’d said
something wrong, but then recalled how pale and uncomfortable Jimmy had looked back when
Ren and Martyn were arguing. He wasn’t so sure it was a good idea to further the conversation in
that topic, but he felt so compelled to know what Jimmy seemed so stressed over. Scott figured
he’d chance a question.
“Hey,” He spoke calmly. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but, can I ask—what
made you freeze up back there?”
Jimmy looked up from the ground. “What do you mean?”
“Like, I don’t know, you seemed so shocked and scared for a good few seconds while we were
sneaking up on Ren and Martyn. Any particular reason for that?”
Jimmy continued to stare at him, his complexion now one of gentle sadness. Scott started to
wonder if he should just drop the topic altogether, but then, the other began speaking.
“I need you to not tell anyone about this.” He started. “Or at least, not tell Ren…”
Scott gave a single nod, wondering what kind of secret he could possibly have to hide from Ren of
all people. He let the other continue, however, feeling as though he was about to say something
very important and personal.
Jimmy stopped walking. Scott stopped along with him. He took a deep breath in. “You know how
I told you Martyn has really good hearing?” He asked.
Scott nodded.
“And you know how I said he’s capable of hearing someone’s heartbeat if he’s close enough to
them?” Scott heard Jimmy’s breathing hitch slightly, that look of paleness coming back to him. He
nodded once more.
“Well…” Jimmy paused and looked back at the ground, his expression now very upset as he
seemed to try to find the right words to say next. What he did end up saying, however, was
incredibly unexpected.
“…You know how people’s heart rates tend to speed up when they’re lying?”
It took him a second. And then—
“Oh.” Scott said.
The other nodded back.
“Oh shit…”
Scott was quick to recall the conversation they’d overheard between Ren and Martyn.
“I’ve told you a million times. I didn’t cheat on you with Bigb!”
“Oh my god—there you go again! Lying to me!”
“Martyn—I’m not lying to you!”
Scott sucked in a very sharp breath through his teeth. “ Jesus -“ He said.
“Yeah …” Jimmy replied.
Scott wanted to hit himself for letting his curiosity get the better of him. Never in his life had he
felt more uncomfortable about the details of someone else’s relationship. But this one just stung.
Ren had been lying that entire conversation. No—scratch that, he’d been lying for six months.
While Martyn, on the other hand, was not only completely aware of it, but was also probably
waiting on him this entire time to just fess up and tell him the truth out of his own volition.
Meanwhile, Ren, was only digging himself deeper into an insurmountable hole, having most likely
realized that confessing the truth at this point in time would shatter their bond beyond repair.
Although, he had already done that after the first lie, hadn’t he? Ren just wasn’t aware of it.
Christ, this had to be one of the the juiciest pieces of gossip Scott had ever heard. No wonder
Jimmy made him promise not to tell anyone. If this secret ever made its way back to Ren, then all
of the efforts that Martyn had made in trying to get his ex to confess would be for nothing. But
after so many months had passed, did he really still think that Ren was ever going to admit
anything? Scott supposed he had no right to assume that at all. Martyn certainly knew Ren better
than anyone else here. So if he thought he was capable of it, if he really still wanted to hold out
hope that Ren would come clean, well, then perhaps the man’s guess was better than his.
“So, he’s a walking polygraph?” Scott asked, the both of them having picked up their pace once
more.
“Essentially.” Jimmy replied. “I’ve known that about him for ages. Ever since I stopped being able
to get any lies past him, I knew it had something to do with his new abilities. Everyone from Evo
figured it out eventually, but Ren, out of everyone—apparently hasn’t.”
Scott looked to the ground. “Well, he’s in a very hairy situation then, isn’t he?”
“Yep.”
“And—you’re not going to do anything about it? Even with this information you have about him?”
Jimmy blinked at him. “Are you?”
Scott thought on it for a moment. “I suppose not.” He replied. “It’s not my drama to meddle in.”
Jimmy looked to the side, muttering his next words quietly. “So would you say that Tango’s drama
wasn’t yours to meddle in either?”
Scott scoffed. “That was different and you know it. I was just trying to get you someone to kill that
lined up with all of the standards you apparently had.” He said sarcastically. “And plus, you were
trying to attack me instead! Let’s be honest here, another hour or so and you would have lost it
completely.”
At that, the canary sighed. It took him a minute to respond.
“I get your point.” He finally said. “And I am still sorry I attacked you.”
Scott went to open his mouth.
“I still don’t think you should have shoved Tango!” The other interjected quickly. “But… I can
understand why you did it. You were just trying make the plan work with what little context we
both gave you about our reasoning behind avoiding Impulse, and it wasn’t fair of me to get so
angry at you over that.”
Scott waited to make sure that the other had finished. Then, decided to bring that subject up
himself. “You were right too.” He muttered. “That wasn’t my drama to meddle in and I shouldn’t
have forced either of you into doing something like that. So, I’m sorry too.”
They were nearing up on Jimmy and Tango’s base now. Scott could see it in the distance. The
outside of it was still uncomfortable for him to look at, but he figured they wouldn’t be outside for
long anyway.
“Thank you.” Jimmy said back, stepping ahead slightly to walk up the wooden stairs. “But don’t
say that to me. Maybe say it to Tango when we see him?” He opened the front door and let Scott
go inside.
“Oh god, I forgot about how pissed he’s gonna be at me when he sees me” Scott said, looking
around the inside of the decoy base.
Jimmy laughed slightly as he took down the planks that were hiding the entrance hallway to the
secret base, once again, letting Scott go ahead of him while he put them back in place.
“Ah, don’t worry. I’ll make sure he doesn’t rip your head off.” He said with a smile.
“That would be appreciated.” Scott said back, the both of them now walking down the short
hallway.
“Tango!” Jimmy called. “Are you in here?”
They reached the entrance to the other room.
He saw Jimmy freeze in place suddenly. “Tango?” He said in a quieter tone, walking over to the
bed. From where Scott stood, there appeared to be a large lump under the blankets.
Jimmy placed a hand on top of it, running a hand over the blankets smoothly as he leaned down.
“Are you trying to sleep?” He whispered gently. Tango didn’t respond.
Scott, not entirely sure what he should be doing, walked over to where Jimmy was. He was just
beginning to peel back some of the blanket ever so carefully. Tango’s upper body, he noticed, was
still fully dressed, yet completely asleep. He looked peaceful, as if he’d finally been able to rest
after both a physically and mentally taxing day. Which, considering what he’d been doing less than
an hour ago, checked out.
He looked back at Jimmy, who was frowning. He seemed to be thinking the same thing. He
watched as the canary lovingly ran a hand through the other’s hair, being careful not to wake him
up, and then, tucked the blanket back in under his chin so as to give his face some space for
breathing.
Scott suddenly felt pained all over again upon watching this display. But he said nothing.
“We should probably let him sleep.” Jimmy said quietly, turning back to Scott.
Scott simply looked between the sleeping Tango and his teammate a few times before quirking a
brow.
Jimmy simply shrugged his shoulders at this. “If he’s sleeping, he’s not yelling at you.” He argued.
He made a fair point.
The two walked back out the wooden opening and down the hall, resealing everything up once
they exited into the decoy house. It was only then that they both heard a knock at the door.
Jimmy’s head whipped around, he looked to Scott once more before turning back to the door and
walking over to open it.
Scott followed to see who it was when the door opened, and to his surprise, it was Pearl and Lizzie.
He saw Jimmy open his mouth, likely about to say something before Lizzie beat him to it.
“What the heck have you guys been up to??” She asked somewhat aggressively while letting
herself in. Pearl gave an awkward smile and quickly followed suit. “And where’s Tango?” She
continued. “Is he alright?”
“Tango?” Jimmy quirked his head to the side. “He’s fine. He’s just taking a nap.”
Scott nearly slapped his own forehead at Jimmy’s comment as he watched Lizzie’s eyes do a quick
survey around the small room that was their decoy base. “Uh, where?” She asked.
Jimmy’s body visibly stiffened, the canary having likely just realized his mistake a bit slower than
Scott did.
“He set his last spawn back at my place.” Scott chimed in quickly. “We were just around that area,
actually.”
Technically, not a lie.
“Jimmy lost his sword while we were fighting with Martyn’s team and after checking up on
Tango, we figured we’d just let him sleep while we went to go grab him a new one from his base.”
Lizzie blinked at him oddly, but seemed to hold no reason to not believe him.
“Alright.” Pearl chimed in. “Well since he’s not here, how about you tell us why the heck you guys
went and killed Martyn and Impulse?”
Scott froze up at that, remembering what Cleo had asked of him after they’d made a deal with her.
“Remember, I never sent you and you didn’t get their base location from me.”
They couldn’t tell them the real reason why they had to attack Martyn’s team. Even if they left
Cleo’s name out of the picture and simply told them that they were being paid to do it, it might still
incriminate her. Given their history, of course, one could be quick to assume it was Cleo who gave
them the job for Martyn.
“Jimmy needed to kill someone to satisfy his red life urges.” Scott said, making sure to sprinkle in
some of the truth into his lie so as to make it more believable. “Ren just ended up fighting back
more than we anticipated and we accidentally ended up phantom-killing him twice.”
Pearl still looked at him questioningly. Scott figured she’d be skeptical.

“If that is the case,” Lizzie continued. “Then what happened between Tango and Impulse while
you two were off killing his teammates?”
Scott looked to Jimmy in shock, who had an equally surprised look on his face. How did she know
he had made Tango talk to Impulse as a distraction? Did he tell her in chat?
“How did you-?” Jimmy started.
“When’s the last time either of you opened the chat?” Lizzie continued.
Scott looked at her, puzzled. “I don’t know. Not too long.” He replied, reaching for the device in
his pocket. “We turned our comms off while we were inside Martyn’s base. What happen-?”
“Uh-“ His question was cut off by Jimmy, who had already gotten his comm turned back on and
was now looking at it worriedly.
Scott powered his on and opened the chat himself.
Upon viewing the text, he began to see how some of the first few messages might raise some
concern.
<BdoubleO100> Tango what’d you say to him? Is everything alright?
<Zombiecleo> Scott? Jimmy? Everything okay?
<LDShadowLady> Where are you guys?
<Smallishbeans> It’s like their team just dropped off the face of the earth
“Oh…” Scott said, now starting to scroll upwards past the recent parts of the conversation,
eventually reaching a message that Tango had apparently sent a while ago.
<Tango> Impulse I’m so sorry!
His eyes darted past another as he continued reading.
I really do want to talk to you more! That wasn’t a lie!!
He remained confused for a second, before finally reaching Impulse’s messages.
<ImpulseSV> Of course you wouldn’t just talk to me because you missed me. You wanted
something out of it.
Oh dear…
You wanted to distract me.
Scott’s eyes widened, having now understood a bit more of the bigger picture. He looked up and
turned to Jimmy who, unsurprisingly, looked very concerned.
The canary put his comm away again, slowly lowering himself to sit on one of the chests in the
room and running his hands along his face.
Scott, on the other hand, felt as though there was nothing he could possibly say in that moment that
would be of any help. So, he simply stayed silent.
Jimmy sat like that for a second, then, he pulled his head back up and turned to look at Scott. Scott
saw something flicker in his worried eyes. Maybe it was anger? He felt he had it coming—to some
extent at least—seeing as whatever kind of mess this was wouldn’t have occurred if he had listed to
Jimmy and not have forced Tango into doing anything he felt uncomfortable with in the first place.
On the other end, however, Scott figured he should have also been happy with this outcome.
Tango’s friendship with Impulse had now apparently been damaged immensely and out of the blue.
Maybe now Tango had at least a taste of how Scott had felt when he took Jimmy from him. If
anything, he should be glad.
He didn’t feel very glad…
He stared back at Jimmy. Even if the canary had gone back to resenting him for doing what he did,
he certainly wasn’t showing it. Instead, he rested his head back on his hands.
“How could I have been so stupid?” Scott heard him mutter to himself. He turned back to Pearl
and Lizzie—both of them giving him looks of sympathy.
“So you see why we had some concerns then, yeah?” Pearl said tenderly.
Lizzie nodded. “Maybe we can all go see him? You know, together?”
“Yeah,” Pearl continued. “if he’s back at your base, then he’ll probably have woken up by the time
we all walk over there anyway.”
Jimmy looked back up to them. Scott figured he was briefly wondering whether to tell them the
truth or not about where Tango was. Whether that would even make a difference at all. “I-“ He
started slowly. “I think I should just be the one to see him—for now.”
Lizzie gave him a concerned look, sitting down next to him and putting a hand on his shoulder.
“Are you sure?”
Scott continued looking at him. His face said it all. He knew what his ex looked like when he was
trying not to break down.
He saw Jimmy swallow, then smile slightly. “Yeah,” He said. “I am.”
Lizzie continued to stand there for a little while longer, eyes trailing over the canary’s face as if
trying to assess if he really was alright. Eventually however, regardless of what she did think, she
decided to let him go on this one.
“Okay.” Lizzie continued. “If that’s really what you think is best.”
Jimmy nodded back. “I do.”
Slowly, she got up and turned back around, gesturing to Pearl, who was already getting up to
follow her.
Scott locked eyes with Pearl for just a second, her giving him her own look of concern, before she
went to open the door. Scott realized she hadn’t said anything about how sleep deprived he looked
like Cleo had. Maybe, she felt as though she didn’t need to.
“We’ll talk later. I promise.” Jimmy said. And Lizzie simply smiled at him sadly before turning to
walk away.
Scott watched as Jimmy closed the door the rest of the way, leaning the full side of himself against
it as if it was the only thing keeping his body from collapsing in on itself. Scott watched him for a
moment, mouth dry, before finally working up the courage to say something. Anything.
“Aren’t- aren’t you going to-?”
“I’m not waking him up.” Jimmy finished, as if having read his mind. Slowly, he pulled himself
back up.
“If he’s sleeping, then he’s probably not worrying about all this. And that’s all I can really give
him right now.”
There was some silence between them for a few moments. Scott continued to look at the other,
thinking over this entire situation. He hadn’t realized it until now, but some level of guilt was
beginning to make itself know within him. He hadn’t changed his mind on things. Even if Jimmy
wasn’t angry at him for it this time, he still certainly wasn’t happy at all at how everything between
Tango and Impulse had turned out.
Revenge, at least this level of it, felt disgustingly wrong to him.

He wondered if Jimmy even wanted him there any more. If he was just biting down on his tongue
while holding back the urge to kick him out himself. Scott didn’t want to bet on him being on
better terms with the other after everything that occurred today. So, he figured he’d just give the
canary an out himself. If he really wanted it.
“I think… I should go follow them.” He spoke awkwardly, starting a slow walk over to the exit.
“I’ll take my leave.” He finished, reaching past Jimmy for the door.
“Wait.” Jimmy said. His hand was suddenly on top of his, keeping it from turning the knob. Scott
looked up at him with surprise, almost jumping back once he realized how close their faces were.
Jimmy wasn’t moving, and neither was he.
“What?” Scott said quietly. “You aren’t mad at me?”
The other stated back at him, expression unreadable. Then, after a moment of quiet, he said
something Scott hadn’t expected, nor could he quite understand.
“I’m sick of trying to dislike you.” Jimmy uttered, looking him dead in the eyes. He then turned
away from him, taking a step back and giving a little more space in between them. Scott hadn’t
noticed until then that he’d been holding his breath. His hand now felt much colder after Jimmy
had pulled his own away—for some reason.
“Besides,” The other continued. “I said I forgave you, remember?” He crossed his arms over his
chest, eyes now on the floor, avoiding him. “And you forgave me, right? So let’s just drop it,
okay?”
Scott didn’t know what to say. Actually, he was pretty sure he had about a million things he wanted
to say, but he struggled to pick any of them.
“Okay.” He settled on, forcing all of his other thoughts to the back of his mind. “So, you still want
me here because…?”
He didn’t respond right away. Scott figured he was thinking his next words over carefully.
“I- um—“ Jimmy stuttered out. “I—still don’t think it’s safe for you to go back there. Not yet,
anyway.”
Scott narrowed his eyes, but he didn’t protest. “If you think so, then fine.”
Scott would be lying if he said that there wasn’t much else to be said between them. There was
plenty. But he figured all of that could wait for another time.
“Are you- uh, hungry?” Jimmy asked, quickly opening one of the chests and rifling through it.
“Sure,” Scott replied, walking to stand at the other’s side. “I could eat…”
Yeah, all that could definitely wait for later.
Chapter End Notes
I would like to formally apologize to anyone who thought for even a second that Ren
and Martyn’s current relationship was gonna be at least a little less complicated than
everyone else’s. Oof.
Sand Crastle
Chapter Summary
Jimmy and Scott go to get the stuff they were promised from Cleo. They end up
having to settle an argument instead.
Chapter Notes
Whoooo—boy. Sorry for the late (and also kinda short) chapter. I got pretty sick over
the week and it made doing anything other than napping feel like way more effort than
it should have been. But I’m better now! So updates should be back to normal for the
foreseeable future.
Damn it. He needed to tell him.
He didn’t care that he’d just had his heart broken by Impulse. Actually, he definitely did care about
that, but it shouldn’t be relevant to him under these circumstances. He had to do it today.
He had to tell Tango that he still loved Scott.
The man sat across from him at that moment, calmly roasting a piece of steak over the campfire
they’d set up outside, having no idea whatsoever of the mental breakdown Jimmy was currently
experiencing in that moment because of him.
What was it that Scott was trying to do back there in the ravine? Had he been seeing random
movements in the darkness? Movements that were all in his head, perhaps having manifested from
his continued guilt about still loving the other?
Or, was Scott actually trying to kiss him? Surely not. But, could Jimmy really say for sure? What
would have happened if he hadn’t moved? If he did let Scott kiss him? Would he have been able to
pull away? Would he??
“Uh- I think yours is burning.” Scott said suddenly.

Jimmy looked down. He was right. He hadn’t been paying attention to his pork chop cooking and
now it was almost completely black and charred. He quickly stabbed it with his skewer and pulled
it out, holding it up to eye level and cringing at how terrible it looked.
“Shoot.” He said, sighing and throwing it back into the dead center of the fire. He saw Scott eyeing
him, probably wondering why he was being more dramatic about minor inconveniences than
usual.
“Did you want some of mi-?”
“Nope!” Jimmy said quickly. “It’s fine! I’ll just—go grab another one. I guess.” He stood up from
the log he was sitting on and turned to go back inside the house. Likely leaving a slightly confused
Scott behind.
Jimmy closed the door behind him. But instead of going to grab more food from the chest right
away, he simply leaned against the door, and slouched down until he was sitting.
Head in his hands, he tried to think for a second. What was he suppose to tell Tango when he woke
up? ‘Hey, I wanted to let you know that I’m still totally in love with my ex, who we’re currently still
playing this game with. Just thought you should be aware of that since it’s been killing me from the
inside-out for the past six months.‘
The canary had to come to terms with it. There was literally no easy way to do this. But it still had
to be done. At least, if he wanted to continue living with himself.
Slowly, he picked himself back up and started a slouchy walk towards the food chest. Rummaging
through it, he was able to find another pork chop, which he put it in his inventory. He sighed,
figuring it was time to stop avoiding the other.
Turning heel, he started his walk back towards the door. He opened it up and stepped back outside,
looking to the left to see Scott still sitting by the fire, his food all finished and now poking at the
remaining flames with a stick.
Jimmy walked back down the stairs and over to him. He saw him look up. “What took you so
long?” He asked plainly.
Jimmy just shrugged, moving to sit back down and began cooking his food again. “Was just
grabbing some other items while I was in there.” He lied.
Scott didn’t seem to question him much and went back to poking at the fire. He stayed quiet for a
moment before speaking again.
“The sun will be setting soon.” He said. “We should probably head back over to Cleo’s before the
day is out, y’know, to collect all the stuff she promised us.”
Jimmy tensed up slightly. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to walk back over there with him. Alone.
But what else was there to do? Either they stay here and wait until either nightfall or for Tango to
wake up, or they go and actually do something useful with he rest of the day.
God, was Jimmy frustrated with himself. Did he want to be near Scott, or avoid him? Because he
clearly hadn’t been able to make up his mind on that ever since this game had begun.
“Good point. We should go see her.” Jimmy said, trying not to think too hard about his response.
He saw Scott perk his head up in what looked to be surprise. “I’ll be honest,” He started. “I had
already half assumed you wouldn’t want to leave him alone. But sure, I guess. If you’re really
alright with that.”
Tango. Right. He needed to be there when he woke up. Although, Jimmy did know from
experience that once the hybrid was asleep, he had a tendency to not wake up for a while.
Especially if he had emotionally exhausted himself.
“It’s fine. He replied. “As long as we’re back before nightfall, it’ll probably be alright.”
Scott nodded, slowly standing up to put out the fire. Jimmy followed suit, grabbing some of the
food they’d set aside and storing it away. Once he felt they were both ready, he moved forward to
lead the way.
“Okay,” The canary said. “let’s go.” Instinctively, he went to go grab the other’s hand.
And immediately regretted it.
Jimmy blushed brightly, flinching once he realized what he’d done. He tried to brush it off,
proceeding to act like he was just making a move to pull the other forward slightly. Surprisingly,
he noticed Scott blushing too. But he had made no move to yank his arm away.
Jimmy slowly let Scott’s hand slip free, continuing to walk in that same direction, only this time,
much faster.
Damn it—what the hell was that? Why had he done that? Why had his needy instinct to touch Scott
in some way only kicked in just now?? Was it because he’d been thinking about him more often?
Probably not. It’s not as though this was anything new for him. There was never a day that passed
where he hadn’t thought about him, both while they were together and after he had left him.
So maybe it was the physical closeness then? That could be it. It certainly didn’t help, that’s for
sure. They hadn’t spent this much time around each other since the last game, despite the both of
them belonging to the same home server. So did that make him happy that he had an excuse now?
That he could just blame all his clingy-ness on how the game was structured? Was Scott going to
say anything about it? Was he? Jimmy was scared now. Scared that any second, he was going to
call him out for it and leave.
Much to the canary’s surprise, however, they both just continued walking in silence. And only a
few more moments of awkwardness passed before Jimmy noticed Scott trying to pick up his pace
to walk next to him.
“So, you’re still alright with me spending the night back at my base, right?” He asked, seemingly
having decided to ignore the events of the past minute or so.
Jimmy, shrugged, still trying not to make eye contact. “That’s fine, I guess.” He replied quietly.
“And you’ll probably be good for the rest of the night? In terms of bloodlust, I mean.”
“Yes. Everything’s fine.”

“Do you think Tango will be alright?”
That question almost made him stop walking altogether. Just as quickly, as Scott had asked it,
Jimmy had shot his head back up to look at him. Weirdly enough, the expression Scott had on
made it seem as though he was just as surprised at himself as Jimmy was.
“I’m just wondering-“ He quickly continued. “Just- I hadn’t realized—exactly, what we’d be doing
by killing Impulse.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “How it might look-“
“Scott, I know.” Jimmy replied. “And as for your question, I’m really not sure. I do know that I’m
going to have to go talk to Impulse about this at some point and try and explain everything. Why
we were there, why Tango had tried to ‘distract’ him-“
“What if I come with you?”
Jimmy, once again, was caught by surprise.
“If I go with, then maybe it’ll be more convincing. Y’know, seeing as I- um…”
Seeing as he hates the guy? To the point where everyone on this server is distinctly aware of it?
“I- I get it, Scott.”
Jimmy paused again, biting his lip awkwardly.
“I guess you could. If Tango’s fine with it. Let’s just worry about that when he wakes up, okay?”
Scott nodded.
“Okay…”
There wasn’t much left to say after that. At one point, Jimmy had thought to message Cleo that
they’d be visiting her once more before the day was out, but he decided against it after realizing
that his message in chat would be seen by everyone, and that it still might not be the best idea to let
the whole server know where they were. He put his comm away for the meantime. They’d were
almost there anyway.
Solid ground started turning into soft sand beneath their feet, and soon enough, the lighthouse was
in view. Jimmy saw the other walk ahead of him. No one was outside, so he figured he was going
to knock on the door. By the time Jimmy had caught up with him, the door had opened, and a
frantic, surprisingly tired-looking Cleo could be seen poking her head through the other end. Her
eyes were half lidded, but they immediately shot open upon seeing him and Scott.
“Oh!” She perked. “You’re here…”
Although her tone was optimistic, she didn’t look nearly as happy to have them here, or any kind of
company for that matter.
Scott opened his mouth. “Uh, yeah, hey—we were just dropping by to pick up our stuff? We did
kill Martyn, sooo…”
“I- I know, I know.” Cleo spoke, holding a hand up.
Scott quirked a brow, making a move to walk past her and inside. “Everything alright with yo-“
“Wait!” Cleo said once more. “Let’s… maybe keep the conversation out here, yeah?” Jimmy could
hear that her voice was shaking. “Actually- how about you just wait out here, while I go get-“
Cleo’s voice was suddenly overpowered by the sound of muffled yelling. Jimmy couldn’t quite tell
what was being said at first, but he had a hunch as to who was causing the noise.
He saw Cleo lower her head in defeat and sigh. “They’ve been like this for the past hour.” She
groaned, although Jimmy could now just barely hear her over the noises. “Please— End me.”
Just then, one of the voices, Bdubs’ voice, got louder. From under the doorframe, Jimmy could see
the tips of his feet making their way down the staircase. He heard the other voice, Etho, yell
something at him once more as he was supposedly leaving, making the other turn back around
immediately and start yelling up the stairs.
“How are you this lazy??” Etho yelled.
“I’m not lazy, Etho. It’s about the principles of it.” Bdubs said back. “I built it, I got to it first, and I
already picked it out—for me!”
“It’s just a room!” Etho continued. Who cares that it’s on the top floor??”
“It has a good view!”
Etho groaned loudly. “God—why is it that you always feel the need to micromanage every little
thing in everyone’s lives? Dumb things like this are literally the reason we broke up!”
There was a moment of silence as Jimmy winced. He had almost no context for what the two were
arguing about, but even he could guess that Etho had just aired out some dirty laundry with that
statement.
“We broke up because you would come up with literally any excuse not to spend more time with
me.” Bdubs snapped back. “Cause that’s just the kind of person you are. You’re too afraid to
commit to anything and I just got tired of waiting for you to start taking things seriously.” He
began making his way back down the stairs, making it a few more steps down before Etho caught
up to him and came into view.
“You don’t know what kind of person I am.” He spoke darkly.
“Apparently not, since you never bothered to open up to me.” Bdubs fired back. “Instead, you just
spend all of your time avoiding the people you fall for, because you’re too afraid to talk things
through with them when even the smallest inconvenience happens with your relationship. You did
it with me, and now you’re doing it with Joel. I mean, come on! You are so clearly avoiding him,
aren’t you? Do you ever think that maybe you’re just not ready to have any kind of long-term
partner at all-?”
Cleo cleared her throat loudly and the two shut their mouths almost immediately, both snapping
their heads to the side to look at the three of them still standing in the doorway.
One very awkward silence passed between everyone, before Bdubs finally spoke again.
“Oh, hey…” He said awkwardly, eyes focused mainly on Jimmy.
“Hey.” Jimmy said back. He hadn’t seen Bdubs since Double Life. Since… Everything.
He looked good. At least better by comparison to how he did during the last game. That’s not to
say that the roughed-up look he was going for was what made him look bad, however. To Jimmy,
he looked much worse when his eyes were red and cheeks tear-stained.
They both held eye contact for a few seconds. Jimmy wondered if he knew about what really
happened with Tango and Impulse earlier that day. If he knew that they weren’t really trying to
hurt him in the way that they did.
“Might I ask what all that was about?” Scott said, suddenly breaking the tension.
Cleo groaned. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you! Now isn’t a good time because these two-“
She gestured to her two teammates aggressively. “-keep arguing about who’s going to be sleeping
where.”
Jimmy looked at her, puzzled. “Why is that a problem?”
“Cause this jerk thought he could move into the top floor that I already claimed!” Bdubs bud in.
“How was I suppose to know you claimed that floor?” Etho said back. “There was nothing inside it
when I got there!”
“There was a bed!”
“Then how about you just move the damn bed and take some other floor instead??” Etho said,
throwing his arms forward. “That way, I don’t have to move all of the full chests of stuff that I
already set up in there while you were so conveniently gone for six hours!”
“Because I wanted the top floor! That’s why I called dibs on it!”
“Etho,” Cleo chimed in. “I literally offered to move all of your stuff out of the room for you just so
the both of you would quit arguing.”
“And I already told you,” Etho said, turning to her. “that I don’t want you to have to do all that just
so this spoiled brat could get his way.” He turned back to Bdubs. “Just move your bed down a
floor!!”
Cleo pinched the bridge of her nose between her fingers, face looking down to the ground. “You
see what I’ve been dealing with all afternoon?”
“Oh yeah.” Scott agreed without hesitation.
“It’s not my fault he’s being lazy.”
“I told you, it’s about the principle, Etho!” Bdubs continued. “And while we’re at it, you’re the
one who’s being childish!”
“Well I didn’t even want to build a lighthouse to begin with!” Cleo yelled suddenly. And everyone
went quiet once more.
“Well, what did you want?” Jimmy asked, turning to Cleo.
Cleo seemed to visibly hesitate before speaking, but opened her mouth again all the same. “I…
Wanted to build another Crastle—made out of sand.”
Scott snorted. “A sand-Crastle?”
“Yeah, that.” Cleo chuckled. “Just for old times sake, you know? Thought it’d be funny and might
bring back some nostalgia. But then this guy-“ She said, gesturing again to Bdubs. “-told me that
it’d be a bad idea to make a build out of a material as weak as sand. So, we settled on a lighthouse
instead.”
Bdubs shrugged. “We still liked the ocean area, and I figured we could stick with the beach theme
while we’re here.”
“Well maybe if you had thought to message me while you were building it and while I was out
hunting and tell me which room you built as yours we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
He had only been here for all of five minutes and already Scott looked as though he was as fed up
with this situation as Cleo was.
“Alright.” He said suddenly. “Well, if you wont move your bed,” He said, pointing at Bdubs. “and
you wont move your stuff,” He pointed at Etho. “then I guess there’s only one person that can
really be helped here.”
He turned to Cleo, smirking. “Cleo, if you want to build your own base far enough away from
these two so that you don’t have to hear them arguing anymore, then I’d be happy to help you.”
Jimmy turned to Cleo as well. She smirked back, seeming to have picked up on Scott’s intentions.
“You know what?” She said. “That sounds like a great idea!”
With little hesitation, the two walked back out the door, leaving Cleo’s teammates utterly confused.
Jimmy simply looked back and forth between the two pairs, fighting back the smile he was hiding
given how abrupt and ridiculous this whole situation had become.
“Wha-? Cleo! We were suppose to be a team!” Etho called out to her.
“Well you both certainly aren’t acting like one and frankly I’ve grown sick of it.” Cleo yelled back,
waving her hand off in a gesture of nonchalantness.
The canary was just about to follow them when Bdubs finally cracked.
“I- alright! I’ll move my bed!” He exasperated, defeatedly.

“While I do appreciate you finally making up your mind in that, this isn’t the first time you guys’
arguing has bothered me, so I think I’ll still pass for a more permanent solution.” Cleo went on.
“That, and I also really wanna build that sand Crastle.”
Etho shook his head, finally deciding to run after his friend. “Cleo-“
“Oh relax. I’ll only be on the other end of the beach. I’d be within walking distance.”
Jimmy saw Scott turn his head back around. “Jimmy?” He asked. “If you don’t wanna help out,
that’s fine-“
“No, I do.” The canary replied. “Just…” He looked back behind him at Bdubs, who’s gaze still
drifted to him, staring at him like he was an enigma.
“I’ll be there in a minute, okay?” Jimmy finally replied.
Scott shrugged. “Okay.” He and Cleo continued their walk across the beach, Etho now tailing them
as he continued trying to convince Cleo not to move out.
Bdubs was still looking at him.
They had a lot to talk about.
“Hey.” Jimmy said to him once more.
Bdubs bit his lip. “Hey…”
Chapter End Notes
Question: how many ships can I fit into one fic? Answer: not enough
Beach Day
Chapter Summary
Surprise! Beach episode
Chapter Notes
Just a quick notice to everyone. I apologize for not mentioning this sooner as I did not
know this was common ao3 etiquette, but I just wanted to let you all know that this fic
will be getting its rating bumped up eventually. So if anyone doesn’t like graphic stuff
but still wants to stick around for the story, I will make sure to mention this again at
the beginning notes of the E-rated chapter whenever I do end up posting it. I’ll make
sure to put this whole thing at the beginning of the first chapter too so everyone new
here is aware, as well as mention it in the tags
“So, are you sticking around just to kill me? Or do you wanna tell me what happened with
Impulse?” Bdubs spoke. He was straight to the point on his intentions. Jimmy wasn’t sure if he
found that more convenient or off-putting.
“I know that Cleo paid you guys.” He added.
Well, convenient it was then. Jimmy was already stressing over what he should say, seeing as that
would depend entirely on whether or not Cleo let her teammates in on anything. He supposed it
was a good thing she did. At least this way he’d be able to be completely transparent with the guy.
“I know what you’re gonna say,” The canary started. “and really, he didn’t mean to hurt Impulse
like that-“
“Oh, I know he didn’t.” Bdubs said abruptly, his tone light and without resentment.
Jimmy did a double take. “Wait—really?”
“Yeah, I mean, at least I don’t think so.” He went on.

Jimmy figured he should just tell him everything. The fact that Bdubs both knew about Cleo’s plan
to kill off Martyn and that he wasn’t accusing Tango of anything right away before hearing the full
story was about the best foundation for this discussion he could have asked for.
Jimmy took in a deep breath. “You’re right.” He said. “Cleo did pay us. She wanted Martyn dead
and while it’s—kind of a complicated story, Scott essentially made Tango talk to Impulse as a way
of distracting him so we could get to Ren. As for what he said, well, you probably figured as much
as I did from their exchange in the chat that Impulse tried to branch out to him, only to end up
thinking he was being lied to that whole time once he found out what we were there for.”
The canary gripped at his shirt discreetly. He knew Tango well enough to assume that he really
wasn’t lying about wanting to start talking to Impulse again. However, he still wouldn’t know
anything for certain until he actually woke up.
“He’s tired, right now. So, I wanted to let him rest before bombarding him with more questions.
He’s already started a bit of a storm in the chat, after all.” Jimmy said. “But I promise, he’s never
mentioned anything to me about resenting Impulse. Not once. I mean this wholeheartedly, I think
he really did want to talk to him. He was probably just putting it off, or making excuses for himself
until Scott came along and forced a reason onto him.”
Bdubs stared at him for another second, and then, turned his head down and sighed.
“I see.” He muttered—likely more to himself—before looking back up. “Impulse… he’s been
agitated this whole time, about how Tango doesn’t talk to him anymore.” He made an awkward
gesture, rubbing the back of his neck. “I think he’s more upset that it took some kind of excuse for
him to start talking to him again than he is about the actual excuse itself.”
Jimmy folded his arms. “Well, he hasn’t really been trying to mend anything either.”
“Heh, yeah,” Bdubs laughed sadly. “He seems to want to claim the moral high-ground on that area,
but I know he’s been just as scared about talking as Tango probably has.
He looked to the ground once more, mind seemingly somewhere else in that moment.
“As everyone has…”

Jimmy could tell what he was getting at. Trying to deal with what happened after Double Life was
almost as scary as it was complicated. As Jimmy had interpreted it in the past, it was a nightmare.
For everyone.
“I’ll talk to him.” Bdubs went on. “Impulse, I mean.” He shook his head. “Knowing what Scott did
probably won’t change his mind about anything right away, but I can at least try to get him to cool
down.”
Jimmy’s eyes widened. He hadn’t expected Bdubs to be so calm and rational about this. Especially
since it was his boyfriend who was involved. Come to think of it, maybe Bdubs was just acting
completely normal and he’d just made a habit of dating hotheads, that’s why his expectations for
people’s reactions were always geared towards the more aggressive outcome. Even if that
agression was never really directed towards him.
None the less, he was happy with this arrangement. It still wasn’t perfect, but it was at least the
best he probably could have gotten from Bdubs. And for that, he was grateful.
“You’d do that?” He asked hopefully.
“Of course.” The other answered. And to Jimmy, he really did seem sincere.
“Thank you.” He replied gleefully.” He then laughed a little, bumping the other with his elbow.
“You’re the B.E.S.T. you know that?”
“Oh my god.” Bdubs said. “You did not just- wrong server!” He laughed back.
Jimmy just smiled, the both of them now looking toward the horizon, where their teammates were
heading. He was about to offer that they go join them, but when he looked back at Bdubs, he saw
his smile slowly fading.
Jimmy thought back to that argument him and Scott walked in on. Despite him and Bdubs not
spending as much time around each other as some of the other players had, he still felt as though he
knew the guy incredibly well. The few times they had spoken had ranged from anything in
between lighthearted comments to a deeply personal and emotional five-person struggle between
them and their partners.
Things had been a little awkward between them, to say the least. And because curiosity couldn’t
help but get the better of him, Jimmy was about to make things even more awkward.
“So, I don’t mean to pry, but, you and Etho…?” Jimmy spoke hesitantly. “Can I ask- did you guys
break up before or after-?”
“Before.” Bdubs answered bluntly.
“Ah.” Jimmy replied. “That’s good.”
It was clear to both of them what he’d meant. It was a question that had been asked of everyone
who got back to their home servers from the last game.
‘Did you break up before or after Double Life?’
That game had become so infamous among their servers that it was now used as a dividing point
for their existing friend group. It may as well have been the B.C. vs A.D. of their timeline.
Everything that happened after that game was just—life altering, to put things simply.
Jimmy was lost in thought for a second before realizing what he had said.
“I- I don’t mean that’s good that you broke up!” He spoke quickly, cheeks flushing red. “I mean-
unless you really wanted to- or-“
“Oh no—I get what you meant.” The other said reassuringly. “It’s a good thing that we cut things
off on our own terms instead of it being due to some wild amnesia shenanigans, right?” He laughed
stiffly. And Jimmy just stared.
“But that’s just why I’m even more grateful I ended up with Impulse.” He breathed. “He wanted to
keep things close between us right from the start. Told me he couldn’t imagine how we could
possibly not be together back on our own server.”
Jimmy’s eyes trailed downward to the other’s hand. He could see he was gripping a small clock
between his fingers that had been clipped to his pants. The other continued palming it as he spoke.
“I loved Etho, for a good while. Or at least—I thought I did… But unlike Etho, I never had to play
any mind games with him, or be the one who had to put in all of the effort into our relationship.
With Impulse, he clung to me right away and never let go. Always let me know how much he
loved me. Never avoided me, even when things got tough. And along with all that, he was my
friend too.”
He seemed to be reminiscing now. But Jimmy didn’t mind listening.
Bdubs swallowed. “I know how many people that game ended up hurting, and I know there’s no
justifying this, but, we’d known each other for years before the game, as friends. And I sometimes
wonder… if- if we never played it. If we never played Double Life—would we have just
continued that way forever?” He looked to the ground, shaking his head. “Would everyone have
just been better off? Even if it meant never finding that out about us? Never knowing…”
Well, there’s another popular trend among the players of the Life games, asking themselves if they
would have been better off not playing. For many—mainly those who hadn’t participated—there
was an obvious answer to this. But for those who did play, for those who had their minds wiped
clean of past connections, who had been given what was practically a clean slate, a perfect setting
to make those connections all over again without a care in the world—the answer wasn’t as
obvious for those people. Jimmy wondered about it to himself all the time. To gain Tango he had
to lose Scott. If he hadn’t of played the game, he would have never even had to know what he’d
lost.
It had been something he’d been asking himself over and over again for months. Every time he
found himself missing his ex—which was a lot of the time—he’d ask himself that once more. On
some days, it might be different than it was the day before. But right now, as he was standing here
talking to Bdubs. He found himself thinking of a new answer completely.
“All I know,” Jimmy murmured. “right in this moment, is that I can’t change anything even if I
want to.”
He turned to face Bdubs, who lifted his head up to look back.
“How about you? You ever think you’d have undone everything if you were ever given the
chance? If only for everyone else’s sake?”
Bdubs sighed. “That’s a different question for me than it is for you. An easier one too, as much as
I’m ashamed to admit it.” He shrugged. “Plus, you’re right. It’s not like we can change anything
about it now. So maybe we should stop torturing ourselves with things we can’t control.”
Somehow, Jimmy smiled. For the first time since he’d started asking himself that grand question,
he felt as though he finally had an answer that suited him.
“I- yeah… Okay.” The canary spoke. “Best to focus on the things we can control, I suppose.”
Bdubs nodded, putting his clock back in his pocket. “Speaking of things we can control, you still
up for building a sand Crastle?”
The both of them looked off into the distance once more, Bdubs now noticeably less irritated at the
notion of interacting with Etho.
“I don’t see why not…”
By the time they got over there, the three had already started on a foundation. Bdubs offered to
help out, despite how much he evidently still wanted to keep Cleo from leaving. As it turned out,
he was right. Sand was a terrible thing to build with. It just kept sliding off everywhere. But
something told Jimmy that no one there really cared about whether or not the build could withstand
attacks, or hold itself upright, just that they got to build it.
Cleo ended up tasking him and Scott with gathering more sand whenever the rest of the group
needed it. Jimmy, once again, expected to feel awkward at the prospect of having some alone time
with him. But, as had been the case for nearly all of today, he surprisingly wasn’t bothered by it.
They talked some more, even if it was about pointless things, like how their empires were coming
along back home, or how nice the weather had been. It was the perfect temperature for a beach
day, despite most of the daylight having now seeped into dusk.
Throughout the entire building process Jimmy kept trying to get ahold of Tango.
<SolidarityGaming> Tango, are you up yet?
<SolidarityGaming> Hey, you awake?
<SolidarityGaming> Me and Scott left to go get something, but we should be back in a couple of
hours. Please let me know when you’re up
As time dragged on, he still got no reply.
<SolidarityGaming> I love y_
“Jimmy!” Cleo yelled at him as she was struggling to keep a wad of wet sand from falling off the
build. “Everyone’s comm literally buzzes whenever you send a message!”
“Oh…”
He may have forgotten about that.
“Just relax.” Bdubs said from behind him, resting a hand on his shoulder reassuringly. “He’ll let
you know if he needs you. You know he will.”
He was probably right about that. Still, Jimmy felt anxious about what he would have to tell Tango
later. What he’d have to spring on him when he did eventually wake up.
He decided to send him one last message. Just one more, and then he’d put it out of his mind for
the rest of the day.
<SolidarityGaming> I need to talk to you about something when I get back. It’s important
There. It was done. He was on the hook now. Despite whatever might happen during the rest of the
day, he’d have to at least tell Tango about it by tonight.
The sun was starting to set and Jimmy figured the new Crastle was almost done, despite the fact
that it looked almost nothing like the old one. It was sinking in at all the wrong angles and was
only half the size that the old one was. The canary thought he remembered Cleo eventually
cracking about halfway through and switching over to sandstone since holding up the edges on the
top up with regular sand was pretty much impossible.
At one point, Bdubs had kicked off his shoes, and the rest of them followed, the sand on the
ground now being the perfect warm temperature to stick their feet in given the now setting sun.
From there, it just got more relaxed. Jimmy shrugged off his over-shirt and rolled up his pant legs,
dipping his feet into the water. Then, he saw Scott and Cleo moving farther in until they were both
soaking up to their waists. With that, the rest of them just stopped caring and started swimming
around, laughing and splashing each other. Jimmy had lifted Cleo up on his shoulders to start a
chicken fight with Scott who was on Etho’s. Bdubs offered to swap places with Etho at one point
and was allowed to, although at the expense of some of his dignity, as he was met with several jabs
at his height, which easily had everyone other than him laughing.
The five of them continued messing around like this, the sun setting over the horizon. Weirdly
enough, it was the first time in a while Jimmy had actually felt as though they were playing a
game. No social drama present, nobody getting angry at each other, just careless, dumb fun like
they’d had during the last three sessions. He’d missed it.
He’d missed Scott.
It was only when Etho started trying to scale the world barrier on a dare that Jimmy felt as though
he should call it a day. Peeling his eyes away from—whatever the heck Etho was doing, the canary
shuffled through the waist-high water and over towards Scott, who he noticed was now lying on
his back lazily, letting the water carry him wherever as he gazed up at the sky. He looked so calm.
Jimmy wasn’t sure if he wanted to disturb him. Come to think of it, he wasn’t entirely sure that he
needed to. But he figured it’d be polite to let him know he’d be leaving. They did end up spending
the whole afternoon together, after all.
“Uh, hi.” Jimmy spoke gently as he approached the other. He noticed Scott stir slightly before
relaxing once more after realizing it was him. Other than that, his position didn’t change.
“Hey.” Scott replied calmly, his tone more sleepy than irritated.
“I’m- I think I’m gonna head out soon.” Jimmy continued. “Sun’s almost set completely. Mob’s’ll
spawn soon, and it’s a bit of a walk back…”
He waited a moment. But weirdly enough, he heard no reply. Scott simply continued staring up at
the sky, frowning.
Was he upset that he was leaving?
Jimmy didn’t want to get his hopes up on that. For one, if he was wrong, it’d just be disappointing.
But additionally, he shouldn’t be feeling this way to begin with.
He should have stopped feeling this way months ago.
Although, Jimmy hadn’t been caring all day, had he? He spent the entire day with Scott and if he
was being honest, a lot of that time was fun for him. He’d nearly forgotten how chaotic things
could get when Scott was involved. He may not look it, but the man was a chaos magnet. If he
wasn’t the one starting it, he was certainly the one who happened to be in the wrong place at the
wrong time. And Jimmy couldn’t lie, he lived for that sort of thing. But at the same time, he liked
keeping things domestic. Loved having the privilege to go on adventures all of the time and then
come back to a warm, loving home. That constant feeling of content he shared with his partner was
what it had been like for him when he’d been dating Scott. That’s what being with Tango was like
during Double Life.
That’s what he was feeling right in this moment.
Without saying a word, Jimmy dipped the rest of his body down into the water. Then, he leaned
back and relaxed his limbs until he was floating calmly just as Scott was.
Scott shifted his eyes slightly to the side to look at him. Jimmy noticed he could easily see the
color in his still green pupils from this distance.
“I thought you were going home?” Scott spoke quietly, his tone neither positive nor upsetting.
Jimmy gazed into his eyes a moment longer. As long as he could before any normal person would
deem it odd.
You are my home.

“I said I was leaving soon, not now.” He said, smiling. “And besides, I kinda wanted to try out
whatever it is you’re doing right now. Looks peaceful.”
He might have been imagining it, but he thought he saw Scott smile back before shifting his eyes
away once more to stare upwards.
“Y’know, I didn’t notice you had your eyes open at first.” Jimmy went on. “I was kind of hoping
you’d finally fallen asleep.”
Scott blinked. “In the water?”
“Sure.” The other replied. “Why not here? Seems pretty nice.”
Scott took a pause, expression still unchanging.
“Were you hoping I’d drowned?” He asked quietly.
Even if Scott probably couldn’t see it, Jimmy rolled his eyes at that by force of habit. “I was
hoping…” He started. “That you’d finally stopped stressing over whatever it is that’s been keeping
you up.”
He didn’t say anything to that. Jimmy could almost feel the other’s exhaustion radiating off of him.
This wasn’t the first time he was like this. Not hardly. Not so long ago, they’d shared a bed quite
often. And whenever Scott wasn’t meeting the deadline for a build that he’d hoped to make,
whenever he was stressing over finishing up MCC or any other projects he was involved in,
whenever anything in his life became too much to handle, he’d have trouble sleeping. The canary
was always able to notice it, even if Scott wasn’t completely aware of it.
“Scott.” He said suddenly. “Could you promise me that when you get back tonight, that you’ll at
least try to sleep?”
He heard Scott let out a sigh. That was to be expected.
“I have been trying.” He argued. “It doesn’t work like that. You know it doesn’t.”
Jimmy begged to differ.
“Well, I know that whenever you stayed in bed and fought the urge not to leave and go do
something, you were always able to fall asleep eventually.” He commented, not fully realizing
what he had said.
“What?” Scott said, surprised. Jimmy felt the water ripple underneath him as the other flinched
slightly. “How did-? How did you know that? How did you know I even got up??”
Now, Jimmy was blushing. He almost wished he hadn’t spoken, but tried to reply none the less.
“…Did you-?“ He bit his lip anxiously before deciding to continue. Screw it. It’s not as though
they’d ever be sleeping together again anyway. As much as he wanted that.
Jimmy opened his mouth, his tone soft and gentle.
“Did you really think I was ever able to sleep on my own when you couldn’t?”
There was silence once more. That’s all that hung between them in that moment. Jimmy almost
wanted to get back up and lean over Scott just so he could see how he had reacted to that. Was he
concerned? Creeped out? Did he just not care??
The silence continued, and just as the canary was contemplating diving under and letting the ocean
swallow him whole, he felt something graze the edge of his hand. He chanced a look over to his
side.
It was Scott.
He could see the man’s hand touching his ever so slightly. So casually that it could have just as
easily been an accident. Maybe the small movement of the water drifted them too close to each
other. Maybe Scott had yet to notice what had happened.
Maybe, he reached out to him on purpose.
There was a stillness in the air. It was like time had slowed down. Jimmy wasn’t sure how long
they stayed like that. His mind didn’t seem to want to keep track, anyway. And he might have just
remained there forever, peacefully drifting with him, remaining in a position that was about as
close as they’d probably ever get to sharing a bed once more.
He might have stayed there, had Cleo not shot an arrow directly over both of their heads.
Scott gasped, surprised. “Cleo- what the heck??” He yelled, immediately sitting up and letting the
lower half of his body sink back down. He pulled his hand away. Had he not learned his lesson
from earlier, Jimmy may have tried to snatch it back.
“Zombie!” Cleo yelled back. And only then did they both hear a disgruntled moaning sound off to
the side.
He did as Scott did and sat back up in the water, turning his head in the direction of the noise and
coming face to face with a decaying skull. Upon seeing this, the canary scrambled backwards
messily along the water as Scott summoned his sword. He put a hand to the other’s shoulder,
pulling him behind him and swinging a direct hit at the front of the monster’s chest. He managed
to strike it twice more, each hit knocking it back before Cleo was finally able to finish it off with
another arrow.
The two of them breathed heavily, more surprised at the sudden disruption of peace than they were
afraid of if. Jimmy looked beyond the glimmering barrier as the last few rays of sunlight sunk
below the horizon. Everything was dark now.
“We should probably head back now!” Etho yelled from above, immediately jumping down from
where he was and cannonballing into the water below. Cleo and Bdubs gave their swift affirmation
before all five of them began making their way towards shore.
“Jeez, has the sun only gone down just now?” Cleo spoke once again. “Feels like it’s been three
days rolled into one, y’know?”
Jimmy saw Scott nod his head. “Oh definitely.” He said, seeming to once again be ignoring the
events of the last minute. They’d made their way back onto sand by now. “I actually don’t think we
ever bothered to get what we came here for in the first place.”
In that moment, Cleo froze, slapping a hand to her forehead.
“Ah-! For goodness sake—I’m so sorry guys! I forgot to get you your stuff…”
Jimmy smiled at her reassuringly. “No, don’t worry about it. We know you would have made good
on that eventually.”
Cleo sighed, seemingly still frustrated with herself. “Well, I can get you the armor and diamonds
right now, but I don’t know if you’re up for herding cows out this late in the day, what with all the
mobs moving about…”
She picked up Scott’s shirt and handed it to him. Everyone else followed suit, ringing out and
throwing on any clothes they might have discarded throughout the day. Some seconds into this,
Cleo’s face lit up as if she’d gotten an idea.
“I’ll tell you what,” She started. “For all the trouble you boys went through in helping me with the
Crastle, how about you just come to me for beef and leather whenever you need it?”
Jimmy saw Scott’s head snap up in surprise. He’d be lying if he said the feeling wasn’t mutual.
“Wait, really?” Scott asked.
Cleo looked to Etho, who shrugged his shoulders. “I’m cool with it.”
Bdubs nodded. “Yeah, me too.”
“Besides,” Cleo continued. “it’s not like we’re going to run out anytime soon. Honestly, I think we
have more than we know what to do with right now.”
Jimmy finished throwing on the rest of his clothes, smiling. “Thanks, Cleo.”
Cleo grinned back. “Anytime.”
“Are we, like, starting an alliance here?” Scott questioned.
Jimmy noticed Bdubs looking at him again. But this time, with much softer eyes. “If you want.”
He answered plainly. And both of his teammates seemed to agree.
“An alliance it is then.” Cleo said.
It wasn’t much of a walk back to the lighthouse, seeing as it was still close enough to see from a
distance. That of course, didn’t stop Cleo’s teammates from continuing to beg her not to move out
the entire way there. And maybe it was the fact that the events of the afternoon had clearly made
Etho and Bdubs act a little more friendly towards each other, or maybe Cleo just thought that she
should have followed Bdubs’ advice since the new Crastle did indeed, turn out terrible, but in the
end, she decided to stay with them after all.
It took Cleo a minute to gather everything she owed them. As she was sifting through chests, Scott
asked her if she’d be needing their “services” again in the future.
“Let’s let the waters calm for now.” She replied. “Although, depending on how the next few days
play out, we shall see if you can be of use.”
She dumped two large piles of stuff into Scott and Jimmy’s arms respectively, which they stored in
their inventories.
“Although, you didn’t hear this from me, but I do think Pearl has some money in the pot for a
certain someone…” She winked.
“Who?” Jimmy asked.
“That, you’ll have to coax out of her yourself. But I’m sure you’ll have plenty of time to do that
tomorrow.”
Jimmy nodded. “Thanks for the tip. I have been feeling a little antsy to kill someone these past few
hours.”
Cleo’s eyes shot open, and he watched as all three of the team members backed away slowly.
“Joking-! I’m just joking...” Jimmy smiled. That seemed to get a laugh out of Scott as well. Cleo
simply rolled her eyes.
“So, we’ll probably see you in the morning then?” She spoke.
Scott nodded. But before Jimmy could respond, he felt his comm buzz in his pocket. He pulled it
out quickly, as did everyone else. The message was from Tango, responding to the most recent
message in the chat from him.
<Tango> I have something I need to ask you
Jimmy’s wings splayed out slightly upon reading it. Tango was awake. Finally.
The canary stirred. “Uh, I have to-“
“It’s fine.” Bdubs said. “Go.”
He pocketed his comm and ran for the door, looking back one final time at Scott.
“Sleep. Please.” He told him.
Scott didn’t reply. He simply looked sad. Or perhaps disappointed would be a more accurate word.
Jimmy wondered again if he was upset that he was leaving, but quickly pushed that thought out of
his head. He had to get back to his base.
He had to speak to Tango.

Him
Chapter Summary
Tango and Jimmy finally have a real conversation about Scott.
Chapter Notes
Ik, ik, I’m super late again. Just had to deal with the holidays and exams and all that.
Which speaking of which, I hope you are all having a very happy holidays and are
wrapped up in a blanket with a mug of something warm and delicious with you atm.
This chapter is kinda longer than they normally are. So I hope that makes up
somewhat for the lateness :)
And also, ummm… 400+ kudos? How the HECK did that happen??? Thank you all so
much for this! I really did just start this off as a fun project, but it’s become a lot more
ever since then and I’m really happy that theres people out there actually enjoying it. I
really appreciate the support and I think you’re all amazing!
Once again, thank you! And I hope you enjoy the chapter.
They were only about two and a half days into the game and already Jimmy was starting to grow
on him.
Tango wondered if everyone else was getting along with their soulmates this well. He hoped so.
The blaze hybrid couldn’t quite explain it, but he felt as though he’d known his partner for ages by
now. And well, maybe there was some truth to that. Maybe they had something going on with each
other outside of this server. Tango surprised himself at how much he seemed to find himself
hoping that such a thing was true, but he supposed that was completely normal. Probably.
He knew a good few things about Jimmy by now. One being that he was sweet. It was not
uncommon that the man would put Tango first before anything. Which, on a server where its
supposedly every man for himself, was pleasantly surprising. Jimmy had every right to be mad at
him after that first death, but rather than distance himself from his soulmate like he’d heard Scott
and Cleo had done, Jimmy stuck close to him whenever he had the chance, never once making
Tango feel as though he was a burden or that he was putting in all the work into their partnership.
And Tango could only hope that the other felt the same about him, seeing as he certainly needed
that reassurance more than anyone else probably did.
Another thing Tango noticed was that Jimmy was emotional. Which worked out fine with him. So
was he. Although, while Tango was more prone to outright fiery anger, Jimmy seemed more
accustomed to frustration and general sadness. But as he’d established, that only made them
understand each other more.
They’d had a short talk about it while mining at one point. Given, their location, it made the
conversation easily turn back in the direction of Tango’s recent death. He didn’t mind poking fun
at himself, joking about how he was glad that Jimmy could come with so as to keep him from
blowing himself up again. The canary mildly laughed along for a short while, until eventually
pausing, expression turning serious again as he opened his mouth.
“Hey- um- you really don’t have to laugh at yourself like that if you don’t want to.”
Tango looked at him, slightly confused.
“Just- It’s alright if you’re actually upset about it. Y’know? You don’t have to act like you’re over
it if you’re not.”
Tango hadn’t said much at that. He only reassured the other that he certainly was still okay with
joking about it before changing the topic. But even still, Jimmy’s comment sat with him. Until
later in the day, when they were hearding some cows together and a message about Jimmy (another
of many that day) sounded off in the chat. Something about one of the players hoping they’d
placed a bet on him dying first while they were still outside the game.
Given the canary’s upset look upon reading it, coupled with the memory of what he’d said earlier
made Tango start putting some pieces together.
“Do you hate it when people make fun of you like that?” He asked suddenly.
Jimmy had looked up at him, seemingly surprised that he’d even bothered to ask. “Uh- well, I
know no one’s actually trying to hurt me when they say it.”
That didn’t answer his question.
“Well if it bothers you, you should say something to them about it. Maybe take some of your own
advice, yeah?” Tango shrugged, trying not to give off a forceful attitude towards all of this. Ever
since their first death, Jimmy had apparently found a place among the players as the group
punching bag, despite the fact that he hadn’t even been the one to cause it. It was more so the fact
that he’d tried to defend himself at every turn, which seemed to only make people more adamant
on continuing their assaults, and eventually, the canary simply sat back and took it wordlessly, like
he probably should have to begin with.
Given the quick response, and somewhat instinctive appearing nature of the taunts towards Jimmy,
he couldn’t help but wonder if this sort of thing was routine for their group outside of the game as
well. Were they always like this with him?
Jimmy just sighed, placing him comm back in his pocket and the bundle of wheat he’d been
carrying under his arm so as to free his hands to unlatch the gate. He still didn’t look up or reply to
that, almost as if he’d already thought of doing that suggestion himself.
“What?” Tango continued, now even more invested. “Are you worried they’ll think you’re fragile
or something?”
Jimmy finally spoke up at this, albeit quietly. “Oh, they probably already think that. And they’re
right.” He stored the wheat back in his inventory and closed the gate behind him, turning back
around to Tango, who was now simply leaning up against the wall of the ranch wearing a look of
confused worry.
Jimmy had been pulling his own weight between the two of them for the entirety of the game, and
then some. He had been so careful to not cause either of them any damage during the beginning,
and he had yet to lose a life on his own either. From his perspective, Tango didn’t view his
soulmate as fragile in the slightest. They were a team, after all. Their ability to cooperate and
support each other in their own respects shaped them as such.
“Then let me be the first to say,” Tango started. “That I dont think that at all.” He decidedly said. It
was a truthful statement, at least, in this context it was.
But it was only then that Tango wondered to himself: had he ever said things like that to Jimmy
outside of these games? Had he been on the other end of things before and just didn’t remember it?
There wasn’t much of a way to tell of course. Not while their memories were gone. But it did make
him wonder to an even greater extent what they were to each before the game.
“And—“ He added. “I’m sorry if I ever made you feel that way in the past. Outside of this game.”
They were now directly facing each other. Yellow on yellow pupils. Tango saw that brightness in
his eyes again and felt curious wondering what it was about himself that made the other look at
him with such interest.
“I still think I’m being way too emotional over this.” The canary said back. “But sometimes I just- I
can’t help it, you know?” His seemed unsure of himself as he spoke, but Tango didn’t need to think
hard on that reply in the slightest.
“I understand completely.” He spoke strongly and without hesitation. Jimmy simply rose an
eyebrow at this.
“No, seriously.” Tango insisted. “I get angry pretty easily.”
This seemed to spook the other a little. Tango noticed his reaction right away and tried to add in
some context to his statement.
“Although—most of the time, I don’t get angry at other people.” He emphasized, holding his hands
up defensively. “I actually get angry at myself a lot of the time. Whether that’s because I failed to
do something, or things didn’t go how I planned them to—and normally that wouldn’t be so bad, if
it wasn’t for- um…”
Tango held up his index finger and made a small wisp of fire shoot out of the tip of it.
“The… fire?” Jimmy questioned.
“The fire.” Tango confirmed, putting his hand back down. “Sometimes when its really bad, my
body will just- ah- kinda- engulf itself in flames…”
As soon as he’d said it, he’d regretted it. Tango was so certain he’d only managed to freak his
soulmate out even more, but surprisingly, he instead saw the canary’s eyes soften into a look of
understanding.
“And you- you can’t control it, right?” the other asked calmly.
Tango wondered if that was a trick question, but decided to answer honestly regardless.
“Um- yes? I wish I could, though.”
Jimmy crossed his arms at that, letting out a sad laugh as he looked at the other, empathy in his
eyes.
“That’s kinda like crying, isn’t it?” He asked, biting his lip slightly. “You want to control it, but
you can’t. And then people start thinking you’re weak for it—or maybe in your case, threatening?”
Tango stood still, mouth slightly agape. He had no idea how to even put his personal frustrations
regarding his fire into words, but his soulmate had just done it effortlessly.
“Yes.” He uttered, still shocked by what he was hearing. “That’s exactly how I would have put
it…”
He watched as Jimmy ran a hand through his hair, seemingly unaware of how exaggerated Tango’s
reaction to his words was. “But that’s not even so bad,” He continued. “At least, when compared to
how it makes you feel about yourself.”
Tango nodded quickly. “I- I know, right?? Then there’s also that feeling of—I think it borders
more on resentment? Self loathing…?”
Jimmy nodded back. “The feeling that you’re not good enough. That you didn’t do enough…”
“The worry when you feel it coming.”
“The fear when it happens…”
“Wondering why the hell everyone else is normal and if you’re just the one being irrational and
dramatic.”
“And if they all secretly look down on you for it.”

Tango hadn’t noticed it until then, but they’d both been slowly gravitating toward’s each other
during that entire talk. Their faces now met with maybe a foot of distance in between them. but
weirdly enough, he didn’t feel put off by it at all. If anything if felt natural. And given Jimmy’s
relaxed demeanor, he figured maybe the other felt that way as well.
“Your really do get it, don’t you?” Jimmy said suddenly, breaking the short silence they’d been
apparently maintaining. Had it been so quiet? Tango hadn’t noticed.
“Yeah, you too…” The blaze replied. “Did- did you wanna talk about it some more?”
“Do you?”
They were suppose to have been productive that day. They were suppose to be improving their
standing and resources. But when they both moved to take a seat on a chest, when Jimmy
continued smiling at him softly with that look of understanding, when it was just the two of them,
showing a complete empathetic grasp of the other’s situation as if their minds—their hearts—were
one in the same, not much else seemed to matter to them.
Tango continued to wonder, in the back of his mind, if they’d possibly been something important
to each other before the start of the game.
__
Having your body temperature increase the more angry you get was inconvenient, to say the least.
Originally, blaze mob’s developed it as an automatic defense system against what was likely a
potential threat. But for Tango, it was practically pointless. And that trait of his certainly made
itself pressent again in the afternoon when him and Jimmy were trying to obtain horns.
“Ah-! Damn it! Again??” Tango yelled fiercely, wisps of fire sparking around his hair and
shoulders. He had once again failed to dodge the goat in time, leaving him with yet another mark
on his leg that would most definitely bruise while still being left with no horn.
He felt himself getting worked up again, that burning flame inside him flickering and getting
brighter as he got more and more frustrated. Sometimes, Tango worried if things might get out of
hand again, as they normally did whenever he left his emotions unchecked. But certainly that
couldn’t happen now, could it? Not over a stupid horn, anyway…
“Are you alright?” He heard Jimmy ask as he walked over to him, putting a comforting hand on his
shoulder and helping him back up. Strangely enough, the blaze hybrid felt the tension melt off of
him almost immediately.
He held on to the other right back to steady himself. “Yeah, yeah- I’m good. Thanks.”
The canary gave him a kind smile, and with that, his anger was gone completely.
Tango looked the both of them over. It had been close to an hour now that they’d been trying.
Thankfully, they had yet to be unlucky enough to get head-butted in the gut or the groin, but their
knees and legs weren’t any better off for it.
The pair heard another horn go off for the thousandth time that day. It was the same as usual. One
started while a symphony of others followed, responding to the call. Great. As if they both didn’t
feel singled out enough already, being down a life and probably the poorest pair on the server.
But that was going to change today. Both Tango and Jimmy had decided to make their main
priority to be obtaining one—as silly as that was. Tango had spent the better part of the day
building a pen to hold the goats while Jimmy had been collecting the majority of them. Now, it was
just a matter of waiting.
Although, waiting, per say, wasn’t something that either of them were particularly good at. They’d
been talking to each other for practically the entirety of the day. Both seemed to find that
conversation came easy between them ever since they’d opened up to each other about their
emotions. But of course, that only made it more difficult to pay attention.
The goats would continue to take swings at them whenever one or the other was busy talking.
Normally, one of them would fail to jump, get butted in the legs, fall down, and then get helped up
by the other, the both of them either laughing or yelling at the stupidity of the situation. One that
could be easily fixed if they’d just stopped talking and payed attention. But of course, this outcome
only repeated itself numerous times.
That is, until one goat made a charge for Jimmy just as he was already getting back up. Tango had
been grabbing him behind the shoulders this time, and in less than a second, the goat went straight
for the other’s stomach, dealing a hard blow and forcing the both of them backwards into the wall
of the pen.
“Oh my god…” Jimmy let out a wheeze as he clenched at his stomach. Unsuspectingly he leaned
his body backwards, dipping right into Tango, who was also groaning in pain.
Tango watched as the goat walked away, now ignoring them (the cheeky bastard). But it took him
a full five seconds to recognize the way his legs were straddling his partner’s sides, and how the
other was leaning the full length of his back against his chest, the back of his head nearly coming
to a complete rest on his shoulder, and—oh dear, they were in a bit of a weird position, weren’t
they?
Jimmy seemed to realize this too, swiftly turning his head to look at Tango. If anything, that made
it worse, seeing as their faces were now nearly touching.
“Um—hey…” The canary spoke awkwardly.
“Hi…” Tango blushed.
“I- I’m kind of- hrk-“ Jimmy made a pained noise as he tried to get up, only for his heel to slip on
the grass, forcing him back down into Tango.
“You’re definitely struggling there, yeah.” Tango laughed, trying to downplay the awkwardness of
their situation.
“Sorry.” Jimmy replied, still clenching his stomach.
“No- no, take your time.” Tango insisted. “That looked like it hurt.”
Although, he wondered if it really had hurt as much as it looked, given that all of the players’ pain
sensitivities had been turned down a good deal for the game. Regardless, Tango weirdly enough
found himself hoping that the other really would take his time getting back up.
Fuck—that really was creepy. Why was he thinking like that??

“Did I come in at a bad time—or?” A voice sounded off from above the pen. They both turned to
look at Pearl, who was casually leaning half her body over the wall as she watched them struggle.
The two soulmates yelled in surprise, both of their bodies immediately scrambling to stand upright.
__
Tango woke up on his side, tiredly rolling onto his back before shuffling his body into an upright
sitting position. The events of the past few hours were all coming back to him now, albeit in a less
concerning way. Tango supposed that a long rest was just what he needed, as he didn’t feel nearly
as stressed about what had happened as he did a while ago. He still wasn’t happy about it, though.
The blaze turned his head in both directions. No boyfriend to be found. Again. Although it’s not as
though he should expect Jimmy to be glued to him at all times. Even Tango wasn’t that clingy.
Although he did still wonder where the other had went.
Tango rifled through the blankets looking for the comm he threw. Eventually, he found it and
opened the chat, scrolling past everyone else’s conversations of the day before finding what he was
looking for.
<SolidarityGaming> Me and Scott left to go get something, but we should be back in a couple of
hours. Please let me know when you’re up
That—didn’t sit well with him. Since when were Jimmy and Scott so friendly again? Did
something happen between them while he’d been asleep? On top of that, that message was sent
nearly three hours ago. Tango assumed they were picking up the stuff that Cleo owed them, and
her base wasn’t too far away. Hell, regardless of where they were going on the small map, it
shouldn’t have taken them this long. Why wasn’t Jimmy back by now?
To Tango, that message was already weird on its own. But what really sent his head spiraling, was
the one that came over an hour after the first one.
<SolidarityGaming> I need to talk to you about something when I get back. It’s important
That made his brain fire off in all directions. He knew Jimmy had been eager to tell him something
since at least this morning. And although it was a relief that he was finally ready to talk about it,
the timing of this statement only served to raise Tango’s levels of concern. Had Scott done
something to him that warranted him talking about it?
Had that something necessarily been a bad thing?
Tango tried to put it out of his mind. Tried to quit his overthinking. But something in him told him
that this wasn’t just him overreacting. The blaze thought back to everything that had happened
since the game began. Jimmy had been acting off since they’d started. Since they’d been teamed
with Scott. And other than the obvious tension that had already existed between him and his ex,
there’d still been all sorts of strange signs coming from Jimmy implying that something was
wrong.
Maybe he was simply trying to distract himself from the memories of what had happened between
him and Impulse that day, or maybe he was just finally at his mental breaking point, but either
way, Tango decided then and there that enough was enough.
Looking back to the beginning, it was his conversation with Lizzie that came to mind first.
“I’m afraid that I’m gonna be right about my other theory. The worst one. I think he’s still in love
with Etho.”
He remembered it clearly. Lizzie was scared of confronting her husband about his feelings for the
man he cheated on her with. He remembered thinking that her and Scott might have been in the
same situation. One where unintentional cheating left them heartbroken. He also remembered
comparing himself to Etho, a person who hadn’t meant to hurt anyone, but from what Tango had
understood, was still unable to let go of the person he loved.
Could Lizzie’s situation have been similar to his in even more ways? If he was Etho and Lizzie was
Scott, did that make Jimmy, Joel?
No. No it didn’t. For that to be the case Jimmy would have to still have feelings for Scott, right?
He looked back at his comm, rereading what his partner had sent him.
<SolidarityGaming> Me and Scott left

Oh…
I need to talk to you about something when I get back. It’s important
That didn’t have to mean anything! He was probably just jumping to conclusions. There was plenty
of things that Jimmy might want to talk to him about. Maybe this was about what he’d been trying
to tell him earlier that morning, when they were heading out to go to Scott’s place.
But—wait. That still could have been… Shit.
Okay, so then what else happened since then? What kind of proof even was there that Jimmy still
felt something towards his ex? Tango tried to concentrate some more. What happened between
their initial spawn in and now?
Scott had tried to burn down the outside of their build. He yelled at Jimmy. Tango tried to comfort
him.
“if he’s still not over you after six months then thats his problem.”
“You don’t understand… God, you—how could either of you ever understand-?”
“Understand—what?”
Joel and Lizzie showed up. Lizzie told him about her suspicions of Joel still loving Etho. But Joel
—Joel asked to speak with Jimmy, alone.
“I just—kind of wanted to ask Jimmy about some things. Privately.”
Then he caught Jimmy pacing around this morning, seemingly restless over something.
“I just woke up feeling a lot more… Intense?”

He tried to tell him something as they were leaving.
“Tango… I love you.”
They’d met back up with Scott and took a walk over to Impulse’s base.
“Was there anything I could give you that could help? That might help distract you some more?”
Scott had offered to distract Jimmy to keep him from feeling bloodthirsty.
“I- oh Jesus —I mean- n-no—I’m good, th-thank you-“
And Jimmy had gotten incredibly flustered right after that question. Tango remembered what he’d
said to him that morning.
“Just wake me up next time, seriously. I could have come up with some much better ways to
distract you…”
But… all that, it didn’t have to mean anything. Jimmy could have just been worrying himself over
something else entirely! Sure, it was suspicious of Joel to want to talk to him alone—most likely
about his relationship—and sure, it was definitely a coincidence how all these anxieties only
started appearing after they’d spawned into the game and were forced to team with Scott, but that
didn’t say for certain that Jimmy felt that kind of way towards him!
Tango’s heart was racing at this point. He didn’t want to believe any of this. He really didn’t. But
what made the thought of his boyfriend still having feelings for his ex even worse, was that Scott
might still feel that way right back.
Tango thought back to the conclusion he came to when he was talking with Impulse in the garden.
Why else would he still be here? Why else would he still stick around after finding out who he was
forcibly teamed with if not for Jimmy? Even if Grian had only just managed to convince him to
come back, he still should have left ages ago the moment he realized who he was teamed with.
Unless, that’s exactly what kept him here in the first place: the threat of taking Jimmy down with
him. Given their situation and the rules for player deaths that were put in place that tied a random
player’s death to the injuries of their teammates—
This was all starting to make too much sense for Tango’s liking. He tried once more to rationalize
this—to try and find some other explanation as to why Jimmy had been acting the way that he was.
Hell, why Scott was acting out of the ordinary too.
He found nothing.
Tango sat in silence for a few moments, thinking everything over. At this point, even his own
irrational mind couldn’t come up with a way out of this one. But did it really matter anyway? He’d
find out the truth soon enough. Whenever Jimmy got back.
But until then, he was done making excuses. He needed to learn to accept things as they were, even
if they turned out to be ugly. His relationship with Impulse had only become more strained due to
him avoiding his problems, and he’ll be dammed if he lets that happen with Jimmy.
Tango looked at his comm once more and typed a message of his own into the chat.
<Tango> I have something I need to ask you
__
It didn’t take long for Jimmy to send a message back that he was on his way. In the meantime
however, Tango had been sitting in front of the fireplace in the decoy base, leaning his back up
against one of the chests he’d haphazardly placed down. He was in the process of heating up some
meat. He figured he should eat something given that it’s been a while since his last meal, and that
was before he decided to attempt to sleep his problems away.
But despite this, he just didn’t have the appetite. Normally, he would be starving after burning
through all that energy. But every bite he took tasted bitter and pointless, and eventually, he simply
decided to toss the rest of it into the fire.
Tango sat there, staring into the flames, watching the charred remains of his dinner burn up and
vanish. It was interesting how fire worked as a permanent disposal for things. He wondered if there
was a way for him to take his worries and concerns out of him somehow, manifest them into
physical form, and chuck them in the fire as well. It was a stupid thought. And yet, he couldn’t
help but dwell on it.
Even so, there was no point in avoiding his problems for any longer. He’d already been denying
them in his mind, putting them off until he could no longer. In the end, he figured that to some
extent, he already knew. He was already aware of it being a possibility. But so long as there was
any hope that that wasn’t the case, he figured he could continue to ignore it while hoping for the
best.
Damn it. He was still doing it. Still ignoring it in his mind. He really needed to suck it up and just
call it what it was.
His partner might still love another man.
Although, maybe ‘love’ was still too strong of a word for it. Maybe Jimmy just possessed some
small feelings towards him that bordered love, or imitated it. Or maybe, hopefully, he just wanted
to start trying to be friends with Scott again after everything that happened, like Tango did with
Impulse. Maybe Jimmy was just worried about talking it over with Tango since it was, of course, a
touchy subject. But its not as though he would have rejected the idea completely! He of all people
could understand the desire to mend past relationships while being too afraid to do so. He could
have been supportive about it if that were the case!
But, that wasn’t the case, was it? Tango could hope for that all he wanted, but in the end, he
couldn’t change what the facts were, no matter how badly he wanted to. And the fact was, Jimmy
had been giving off signs of this since the very beginning. Since Tango took him home that night
after Double Life and held him while his body shook. It was an odd thing, really, comforting your
partner over losing their other partner. They both had to have known it was.
God, was that why Jimmy hadn’t tried to be too emotional about it since then? Had he thought
Tango would hate him for it?? How could he have not considered that until just now? What was
wrong with him-?
Tango suddenly heard footsteps coming up the front steps. Well, ready or not, he figured it was
time to have his question’s answered once and for all.
The canary opened the door, stepping in quietly before peering to the left. Tango locked eyes with
him, and he offered a soft smile. The other returned it, moving over to him and seating himself
closely to his side against the chest, the both of them now gazing into the fire.
“Hey.” Jimmy spoke softly.
“…Hi.” The other said back.
Jimmy let his body relax, shoulders slumping before he continued. “How are you feeling?”
Tango didn’t respond right away. He simply continued gazing into the fire, as if the answers to all
his questions somehow lay in the flickering flames.
“I’m not sure what to feel.” He finally settled on. It was an honest answer, really. There was a lot
on his mind right now.
Gently, he felt his boyfriend move a hand onto his. Tango didn’t even hesitate before clutching his
fingers around it. Damn it. Despite everything he still couldn’t— wouldn’t —let him go.
“I’m sorry I screwed this up for you.” Jimmy went on. He was surely referring to the events that
occurred after they’d stormed Impulse’s base, but little did he know, those worries had all but been
shoved to the back of his mind since waking up.
Even so, Tango jumped to defend him. “Hey- no. Don’t even bother with that.” He urged. “There
was no way you could have known what we were talking about while you were in the tower.”
Jimmy just shook his head. “I still should have pulled you out of there. Should have ran after you,
plans be dammed.”
Tango gave his hand a soft squeeze. “Well, I’m glad you didn’t.”
“You’re just saying that.”
“No, I mean it.” He continued. “I’m done ignoring my problems, and I need to start facing them,
even if it’s scary, even if things don’t go how I want them to…”
And that included this one.
“I’ve been thinking that too, actually.” Jimmy paused, head now turned to the ground as if he were
trying to hide his shame.
“That’s why you said we needed to talk?” Tango asked.
“That’s why you told me the same thing.” Jimmy said back.
Tango leaned in and rested his head on the other’s shoulder. He’d only just woken up. And yet, he
was still so tired. Tired of worrying about everything. Tired of himself…
“I think… I know what you want to talk about.” The hybrid finally let out what was on his mind,
speaking his next words in a low murmur. “I think I’ve known for ages, actually.”
They both turned their heads to look at each other. In that moment, Tango felt at peace again. He
let out a low hum as he stared into his partner’s eyes, Focusing only on them and the word’s he said
next.
“You never stopped caring about him, did you?”
He saw Jimmy’s jaw clench for a second, time feeling as though it was moving in slow motion
before his eyes widened as it dawned on him what exactly the blaze was implying. Then, his
expression softened into one of complete and utter helplessness as he turned away from him
completely.
And that was it. That was all the confirmation Tango needed right there. All the dots he connected
were spot on, all his suspicions were right. Surprisingly, he felt unexpected relief wash over him at
the finality of it all. Now, he knew for sure.
Now, they were on the same page.
Tango quickly sat back up. It hadn’t been his intention to make the other feel cornered like this. He
moved in closer, wrapping his other arm around his boyfriend’s waist as if anticipating the
possibility of him running away. Jimmy did no such thing, however, only kept his head turned
away in shame.
“You knew.” He whispered bleakly, voice shaking.
“I had some theories.” Tango confirmed. “I just couldn’t stop thinking about you. Even when
you’re not here—even in my sleep. The way you’ve been acting since the game began and you
started interacting with him again, it’s like you were hiding a secret that was killing you. I’ve just
been so worried.”
Jimmy didn’t reply. Tango could only feel how his body trembled in his arms. This entire situation
—it certainly seemed very familiar to him.
“I won’t make you say it.” The blaze whispered gently. And that seemed to get the other talking.
“I ought to, though.” Jimmy muttered, face still turned away. “After keeping you in the dark for so
long, I owe you that much.”
Tango let out a frustrated noise. “You owe me nothing.” He stated. “Hey, look at me.”
He cupped a hand to the side of his partner’s face and carefully drew it back towards him. Jimmy’s
eyes were still trained on the ground, but eventually, he complied.
Tango didn’t need a mirror to know how he must have looked in that moment. His pupils should
have been blown out completely, because damn it all—he knew he loved him. That hadn’t
changed. Not at all.
“You think this makes me love you any less?” He spoke fiercely. Jimmy’s breath hitched, and
Tango slowly brought his head forward to lean against the other’s, who’s eyes were now half-
lidded and much calmer-looking than they were before.
“I’m sorry.” the canary breathed, moving to touch the hand that was still cupping his face. “I just- I
don’t know what I’m gonna do about it—I-“
“We’ll figure it out.” Tango spoke. “We always have.”
There was a pause, and then, the other sighed. “I guess we have been through worse, haven’t we?”
Tango nodded. That was certainly an unfortunate truth to their relationship in more ways than one.
“If you want to stop hanging around him for the rest of the game, I get it. He would probably
prefer that too anyway.”
“And let him run off some cliff and kill you?” Tango laughed. “I don’t think so.”
Jimmy pulled away again, frowning. “Love, seriously. This is bigger than some game.”
“Some game that means the world to you.”
“You mean the world to me.” The canary fired back. “And I’d rather die by some dumb canary
curse a hundred times over than make you uncomfortable like this.”
“I’m not uncomfortable.” Tango said sternly. He knew he might have been stretching the truth on
that, but if he were being honest, he did feel a lot more comfortable knowing all this than having to
guess while only knowing bits and pieces. “I’m- I’m processing this—but I’m not uncomfortable.
We can still just try to have fun and win this thing, okay?”
All in all, Tango was telling the truth. He was perfectly capable of maintaining things the way they
had been going, with the three of them being part of some sort of team for the duration of the
game. He wanted Jimmy to have fun with this. Hell, he wanted to have fun with it as well. This
game was the start of so many new things for them, after all, even if some of those things weren’t
exactly positive. But hey, he was able to handle all of those things, wasn’t he? He could handle this
one too. At least, until they both got out of the game—whenever that might be.
There was some hesitation behind the other’s eyes. Tango saw him open his mouth to say
something back, but carefully closed it, seeming to have accepted defeat on this subject.
“You still caused the first death for me.” The other said, tone now mellowing out to something less
serious.
“I still think that one was half my fault and half his clumsiness.” Tango said, now running a hand
through the other’s hair.
Jimmy laughed quietly. “You’re ridiculous.”
“You love that.”
They both stayed like this for a moment, Tango stroking his partner’s hair and him leaning into
every touch.
“He say’s he’s sorry, by the way.” The canary spoke again suddenly. “About making you talk to
Impulse.”
Tango quirked a brow at that.
“Okay—he implied it.” Jimmy continued. “But he walked over here with me and he was going to
apologize before we saw you were asleep.”
Tango sighed, smiling. “If you say so, Angel.” He really didn’t know what to think about that.
He’d already decided that he wasn’t going to hold Scott to this one. What happened back at
Martyn’s place was essentially just a series of bad choices made in a panicked, uninformed frenzy.
And looking back, Tango got the feeling that if Scott hadn’t made him talk to Impulse when he
did, then he would have simply never gotten around to it due to his own fears and overthinking.
I other words, better late than never—or perhaps more like: better things go terribly than not at all,
since that was apparently the outcome of all this. But regardless of that, Tango would still find
some way to fix his relationship with Impulse. He knew he would. Just like he would with Jimmy.
Somehow.
He’d managed to inch his way back against his boyfriend at this point. The other still felt tense and
hesitant to rest back into his arms. It was clear that he was still ashamed about everything he’d just
indirectly confessed to him. And maybe Tango did feel a bit betrayed upon finding out about
everything, even if it was more so due to his partner hiding his feelings from him rather than what
it was he was actually feeling. But throughout the months following Double Life—and especially
over these past few days—he’d been learning that essentially everyone had been a victim in this,
and that people deserved to have their perspectives understood.
Tango ran a hand down Jimmy’s side, warming up his body so as to try and make him relax. “I
don’t know what you see in him. I’ll probably never know.” He said. “But, I think I can handle
him.”
He heard Jimmy— felt him— breathe in deeply. “Fuck—I- I’m just s-so sorry I let it get like this—
I thought I would have been over him by now-“
“I never should have expected that from you. Tango objected. “Not when I never even bothered to
ask you about it.”
It was odd at this point, that they’d both managed to dance around his name—even what exactly it
was they were implying—for the entirety of this conversation, as if acknowledging who and what
it was they were really talking about would solidify it, make it real in a way that they couldn’t
come back from.
“Well, you had every right to assume as much after six months.” Jimmy continued.
“Bullshit.” Tango said back. “I was only ever projecting my own experiences onto you. Just
because I was able to get over… them—quickly doesn’t mean I should have expected the same of
you with-“ The blaze swallowed a lump in his throat. He had already decided that he was done
avoiding his problems. Now, he needed to follow through with that decision.
“-with Scott.”
He felt his boyfriend flinch. Sure enough, he had indeed been avoiding the actual topic just as
Tango had. They always did think alike when it came to subjects of the heart , emotions.
“That still doesn’t make it right.” Jimmy whispered. He then let out a shaky sigh, peering upward
back at Tango. “Why do you even put up with me?” He asked in a voice that was sincere enough to
nearly break Tango’s heart.
“I don’t ‘put up’ with any part of you.” The blaze said plainly. “But as for why I chose you, well,
you know why.” They’d have to stay up for hours if he were to actually list off every reason, but
Jimmy knew the most important one, of course. Tango knew he did. “And I could ask the same
thing about you. You were there with me during the worst of it. When all the Double Life players
started fighting with each other, when Etho and Martyn shut themselves out from everyone, when
the Hermits started taking sides after- after Zedaph-“
“I know, Tango.” Jimmy stopped him there, thankfully. He already knew that Tango had a hard
time thinking about that, let alone talking about it. “But how could I leave you?” He continued.
“How could I do that to you when you were at your lowest? I could never leave you over some
stupid drama. When things got difficult during the game, we stuck together. And for as long as
you’ll have me, I’ll continue to stick with you thorough the hardships of the real world as well.”
“Why?”
Jimmy pulled away slightly, sighing in defeat and shaking his head. “You know why.”
Tango smiled back, leaning into the other once more. “See? That’s why you’re different.” He
spoke, his head reaching out, lips now tracing along Jimmy’s neck as he felt him shudder beneath
him, his next words being uttered into his soft skin. “That’s why this is different.”
“I love you.” Jimmy said. The words shot out of him eagerly. “God, I promise that hasn’t changed
at all. Not a bit.”
“I love you too.” Tango said back, a phrase that had clearly also been unchanging for him.
He continued grazing and kissing along parts of his boyfriend’s neck and face until he felt drunk on
the sensation of him. Jimmy seemed to have relaxed more under his touch, thankfully, as his body
no longer felt tense and strained, despite the conversation they’d just had.
Another thing Tango loved about his boyfriend: how easily he could come undone under his touch.
“Heh, you smell like the sea.” The blaze said, eventually speaking up again.
“Mmm…” Was all the canary could get out after likely being both exhausted from the day’s
activities and dizzy from the other’s touch.
“You’re really tired, aren’t you?”
“S’ been a long day…”
Tango sighed, pulling away only to hear a soft whine come from his partner as he hooked an arm
under him and helped the both of them stand up. “Alright then.” He said. “You’re coming with
me.”
He ended up half-carrying him back to bed. Tango doubted that Jimmy even realized what was
happening until they’d switched rooms and he began stretching his limbs and insisting that he walk
the rest of the way even though they were practically there. Tango couldn’t help but laugh a little at
how much this paralleled how they’d gotten into bed yesterday, with Jimmy refusing to kick off
his shoes and just opting to flop down on top of the blankets instead.
Tango ended up having to convince him once more that he would wake up stiff and regret falling
asleep like that to begin with. Jimmy let out a short laugh at that. “You’re one to talk, didn’t you
just fall asleep like that?” He mumbled tiredly while complying.
Tango simply rolled his eyes and helped him, the two of them eventually getting everything off
safe for their shirts and underwear, discarding the clothes into a messy pile. Tango lied down right
against him, and even in his groggy state, Jimmy still thought to wonder what he was doing there.
“Are you even tired too?” He asked through nearly-shut eyes. “Didn’t you just sleep like, an hour
ago?”
Tango hummed, smiling as he curled in closer. “It’s not like I planned on doing anything tonight.”
He said truthfully. “Besides, I’m still kinda groggy. I’ll probably fall right back asleep anyway.”
That part, may have been less truthful. But he definitely didn’t want the other to feel like he had to
stay awake for longer just to keep him company. Tango was always perfectly content with simply
lying at his partner’s side and holding him.
“If you say so…” Jimmy replied one last time before seeming to have clocked out, finally resting
his eyelids for good.
“G’night.” Tango muttered into his side, smiling comfortably through his words. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
There was silence for a moment, and Tango assumed that Jimmy had fallen asleep entirely before
he heard him quietly follow his words up one last time.
“I love you so, so much.”
Tango sighed, his position unchanging as he remained huddled against his partner, warming the
both of them up. He knew this dance all too well from his own experience. Knew the feelings, the
pain, the confusion that came with it. He knew that Jimmy’s words for him were one’s of complete
honesty.
They just held truthful for him too.
Chapter End Notes
Wasn’t sure if it’d be weird to put this here but here it is ig. Not trying to promote my
acc or anything, follow me, don’t follow me, but if anyone wants to have a chat, or
perhaps just has some questions about the fic that they’d prefer to ask on a different
platform or anonymously, you can come talk to me on Tumblr: @chaiandsage
Tension
Chapter Summary
Scott still can’t sleep properly. The team all go to visit Pearl. Scott notices that Tango
has been acting weirder around him—for some reason…
Chapter Notes
Happy 2023 y’all! My New Year’s resolution is to finish this freakin monster of a
longfic! XD
Scott let out a frustrated grunt as he missed the swing towards the tree he was aiming for with his
axe. He’d missed the stupid thing completely. That had to have been at least the dozenth time
tonight that had happened. Although, it wasn’t really night anymore, was it? The sun was now
rising just above the horizon, signaling the early morning hours. Great, now he couldn’t even make
the excuse that it was dark outside and he couldn’t see where he was swinging. He literally just
couldn’t focus for shit.
He had been at this for what was probably the entire night. Did his body still desperately need
sleep? Yes. But was he also too stubborn to follow through with Jimmy’s advice and actually take
a second to lie down and stay still? Also Yes. If anything, what the canary had said to him earlier
in the night—coupled with what had happened between them for practically the entirety of that day
—was what kept him up for even longer.
Scott had reached out to him that day not once, but twice. The first time on autopilot (or at least
that’s what he’d managed to convince himself of), but the second, although occurring in more of a
spur-of-the-moment fashion, was completely on purpose. Those dammed thoughts were at it again.
The ones that he’d tried to bury inside him since the day Double Life had ended.
Since the day he’d lost him.
Well, that’s apparently not how the other had seen it. Jimmy had viewed that whole event as Scott
choosing to leave him. Which yeah, maybe he did. But only in the physical sense! Jimmy was the
one who couldn’t make a choice. And in Scott’s eyes, not choosing was all the same as choosing
Tango over him. Because how could it have even been a difficult decision for him at all? How
could he have had any trouble choosing between him and some asshole that he got partnered with
—that could have easily been anyone! Sure, maybe he did end up sticking with him for this long
afterwards. And yeah, now that Scott had been teamed with him, he was somewhat able to see how
Tango was less like the boyfriend-stealing bastard that he’d made him out to be and instead more
akin to an actual person with human emotions and desires, but that was nothing to go falling in
love with him over! If that’s even what happened with the two over Double Life, which Scott still
had some serious doubts about.
But above every other question that Scott had stored in the back of his mind, what really made him
wonder, was that if Jimmy had already made his decision all those months ago, then why was
Scott still reaching out to him—both metaphorically and literally? Why hadn’t he left this stupid
game yet? What the hell was he even trying to accomplish??
He was thinking again. Scott wanted to stop thinking.
He went to take another swing, this time, nailing the tree dead on and chopping it to bits. This was
good. It was time-consuming, repetitive, and it left no room in his head to think about questions
that he did not want to know the answers to.
Nearly every section of the map that had trees before was now lit up with the touches Scott had
spammed. He was back near Martyn’s tower by now. Standing right underneath the mountain that
carried his build atop it. He felt the small urge to laugh to himself as he looked over the trail of
light he had left behind. If anyone on Martyn’s team had been awake and looking out their window
late last night for whatever reason, they’d probably be wondering who the hell was spamming all
the torches at such seemingly random areas. Scott did need to keep the mobs away somehow,
anyway. And while torches weren’t a full proof way to ward off creatures while out in the open
like that, he’d at least been lucky enough not to come across any creepers or endermen while
walking about. Although he did have to deal with his fair share of phantoms. Looking back, he did
feel a little bad about having risked losing Jimmy’s last life over something as pointless as
gathering an excessive amount of wood that he’d never use, but even so, he’d rather be doing
anything than lie in bed with nothing but his thoughts to keep him awake.
Shoulders aching, eyes sleepy, and having way more wood in his inventory than he’d ever need,
Scott began making his way back to his house just as the sun became fully visible. Although, upon
making his way out of the mountains biome, he wondered if it would be better for him to simply
show up to his teammate’s place than to have them come to him again.
Thoughts of what the place had looked like before he tried to burn it down flashed in his mind.
Then came thoughts of Third Life, his ex, and the Hobbit Hole that they’d built followed suit, and
Scott was suddenly remembering why he’d left to build his own base in the first place. He tried not
to think about that, just as he’d been trying not to think too hard about anything since this whole
game had stared. It was stupid to continue avoiding something simply because of how it looked,
and they were going to have to meet up soon anyway, so he might as well hurry that along.
Scott decided to shoot Jimmy a quick message to let him know that he’d be coming to them this
time. He began wondering if the other was even up at this hour when he suddenly remembered
what the canary had told him just a short while ago.
“Did you really think I was ever able to sleep on my own when you couldn’t?”
That thought made him stop in his tracks. Fuck, was he glad he hadn’t said anything in response to
that. At least, not verbally. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to trust whatever it was that came out of his
mouth.
Scott let out a quiet whine, clutching his comm in one hand, message still yet to be typed. He
wrapped his arms around himself, his motivated facade faltering at the thought of what Jimmy had
said to him. Had he been keeping him up right along with him all those times he’d been unable to
sleep? Why hadn’t Jimmy said anything about it until now? Was it only because they were
separated? How had Scott never noticed that he’d been awake and faking his sleep while right next
to him?
Although, looking back, maybe it was more obvious to him than he’d thought it was. He wondered
if Jimmy even got dark rings around his eyes like Scott did. Had he been hiding them with the
effects of a potion or something? It didn’t matter. The proof that all this had been occurring was
still within his memories. All of those times Jimmy came out of whoever’s bedroom they’d fallen
asleep in that night, come to fetch him and drag him back while claiming that he woke up from
some bad dream or loud noise coming from outside that Scott never seemed to have heard for some
reason. All those time’s he’d wrap his arms around him in bed and hold him so close that he knew
that Scott moving to get up again would risk waking him back up. Every single time, he’d never
been able to sleep either. Just because he knew that the other couldn’t.
“Jimmy…” Scott whispered to no one, tightening his arms around his torso as if trying to mimic
the feeling of someone else holding him. He swallowed a lump in his throat. This was the one thing
he couldn’t force to the back of his mind like he had with all of the old feelings. At least he had
practice doing it with those, but this information had been new to him. And he hated that.
He took a minute to compose himself, finally sending a message to Jimmy that he made sure
reflected absolutely none of what he was thinking in that current moment.
<Smajor1995> Jimmy I’m heading over to your place

<Smajor1995> You’d better be awake by the time I get there
The build still looked as unappealing to him as it did two days ago. Although Scott had to admit,
they had definitely done a good job of repairing it.
Scott walked along the trail leading up to the porch, paying what some might say an a usual
amount of attention to the flowers that were still laid out along the front of it. But he eventually got
up the stairs and to the front door, moving to knock at it loudly. He wondered if anyone was even
in the decoy base and if Jimmy and Tango would even be able to hear him if they were instead
inside the interior build or the basement.
Just as he was contemplating that however, the door swung open. And Scott came face to to face
with—Tango.
Shit.
The blaze seemed just as surprised to see him as he did, as the two of them just stood there staring
at each other in silence for what felt like an uncomfortably long amount of time.
Eventually, it was Tango who broke the silence. “Uh- hi?” He spoke awkwardly.
“Mornin.” Scott said back somewhat anxiously. “Are you both awake? Cause I- ah- I messaged
Jimmy a while ago that I was coming—and he didn’t respond, so…”
He held his breath as he waited for the other to respond, realizing all too slowly that this was
probably the first time they’d been alone without Jimmy’s presence since the lava pit incident.
“He was just putting his clothes back on, last I checked.” Tango replied, the tension in the air
growing even worse as Scott realized the implications of those words, his distressed surprise
having definitely reflected itself onto his face.
“I mean- uh-! He was just throwing on a shirt! Th- that’s what I meant...” Tango quickly spoke
again, correcting himself.
At this point, Tango was blushing fiercely. And Scott couldn’t deny that he was probably doing the
same.
“Oh, okay.” He stated calmly, trying to defuse the conversation.
“…Did you—wanna come in?” The other asked.
Scott rubbed the back of his neck. “Um- well-“
“Cause I know you don’t exactly like this place-“ Tango bud in quickly.
Damn it. He still remembered that whole arson incident. Actually, why in the world would he think
he didn’t??
“No- no- it’s fine. I’m fine…” Scott said, and Tango just remained locked in place, staring at him
with a confused look on his face.
Shoot. He hadn’t specified what exactly he was ‘fine’ with.
“I’m good to go inside.” He reemphasized. “Honestly.”
Tango continued standing still for a second, but eventually decided to step aside and let him in,
eyes still suspiciously trained on his every movement as if he were expecting him to bust out a
torch from his inventory at any moment. Scott couldn’t exactly say he blamed him for that.
He scanned his eyes around the room looking for a place to sit. He then remembered that there
weren’t exactly any chairs lying around the last time he was here, so he opted for leaning against a
chest lined up on the side of one of the walls.
It looked as though Tango had finally decided to peel his eyes away from him and go back to what
he was doing beforehand, which appeared to be making breakfast.
“Have you eaten yet?” He asked after a few more moments of tense silence.
Scott shook his head. “No, not for a while.”
Tango gave him the side-eye, moving to grab the pot he had placed over the fireplace. He poured
some of what was in it into a wooden bowl with a spoon and walked it over to Scott, shoving it into
his hands.
“Do you always treat yourself like garbage?” He glared. “Cause I feel like this whole thing is new
for you.”
Scott scoffed, taking the bowl of what appeared to be oats or porridge. “Since when do you care?”
He fired back.
Tango’s tense facade crumbled slightly as he let out a frustrated sigh. “Just—eat.” He demanded,
having ignored the question completely. Not that Scott cared much for an answer.
He tried to shove a small spoonful of the food into his mouth without gagging in the process—not
so much from the taste, but more so from the natural queasiness that came with sleep deprivation.
All in all, Scott managed to get through about a third of the bowl before he decided to call it quits.
Which at that point, Tango had been walking back over to him with a cup of warm liquid.
“There aren’t any jungles on this map, so, that means no coffee beans.” He said, handing the cup to
Scott. “But I did craft you some tea—if you want it.”
“Um- thanks.” Scott spoke, carefully accepting the cup.
Seeming as though he was done preparing everything, Tango appeared to be taking a breather
afterwards, resting his body against the same wall that Scott was by.
“How many hearts are you at?” He asked.

“Like, seven.” Scott replied.
“Have you seriously been taking damage just from not sleeping?”
Scott simply shrugged his shoulders at that. He saw Tango pinch the bridge of his nose in
frustration.
“Right, okay then.” He didn’t seem to have much to say to that. Instead, just offering a simple
annoyed sigh. Although Scott wasn’t entirely sure what he had to be annoyed over. Perhaps he was
mad that he was risking his teammate’s lives by not keeping his hearts full all the time?
They both continued to stand there in silence. This seemed to have become a trend for them within
the past five minutes.
“So-“
“I-“
They both tried to speak at the same time, each stopping once they heard the other speak up.
“You first.” Tango insisted.
Scott let out an annoyed groan, but went along with his comment anyway. “I just wanted to say that
I’m sorry for pushing you the other day. I—shouldn’t have made you do something you weren’t
comfortable with.” He let out. What he said had caused Tango to whip his head to the side
immediately.
“What?” Scott quipped sarcastically. “Did I say something unexpected?”
“You could say that…” Tango replied, pausing for a moment to continue staring at the other in
mild surprise.
“But, I also wanted to tell you thanks for that—actually.” He eventually finished with.
“Uh— hello?”
Tango rolled his eyes. “I needed to talk to Impulse again and I was putting off doing it. I might
have put it off for the rest of my life if you hadn’t intervened. And whether you intended to or not,
you helped me. So, thank you.”
Scott was still in shock at what he was hearing. Of all the reactions from Tango he had expected,
this certainly wasn’t one of them. Even still, he tried to play down his confusion as he spoke up
once more.
“Well, he didn’t seem all that happy about it.” He said, recalling what Impulse had messaged the
other in chat yesterday. “I don’t know what it is you two talked about, but I clearly made things
worse.”
Tango simply shrugged, turning back to look at his food. “I still think this was the better outcome.
He can’t stay mad at me forever. It’d be impractical for both of us.”
Scott’s jaw fell slack for a second before he regained his composure. Maybe Tango did have a
point there. Maybe it would be a little ridiculous for two people to stay mad at each other forever,
neither of them having gained anything at all from such a rivalry. Aside from the potential
suffering of the other, of course. But Scott had realized—quite recently, actually, that he didn’t
really like it when people suffered due to his actions. Despite how much he might have thought
they deserved it beforehand.
“I suppose—it would be…” He said back. And the silence between them continued once more.
Although this time, it was less tense, and somewhat more relaxed instead.
They continued eating their breakfast like this until Jimmy walked out of the doorway and into the
room.
“G’morning, Love.” The canary said with a stretch, arms coming to wrap around his partner’s
shoulders while he had yet to fully open his eyes and notice the third person in the room with them.
“Morning, Angel.” Tango said back, giving Jimmy a kiss on the side of his head.
Scott didn’t feel quite as infuriated with this display as he might have felt a few moments ago. But
he still didn’t like it, of course.
Scott cleared his throat loudly, causing the canary to open his eyes suddenly and turn around to
look at him.
“Oh—uh- hi.” He said stiffly.
“Hello.” Scott said back.
“You’re here.”
“I am.”
Now this whole thing just felt repetitive.
“I’m guessing that you didn’t read my message.” Scott pressed, attempting to take another bite of
his food right after.
“Um- probably not, no.”
“That’s fine.” He shrugged. “How are you feeling?”
“A little murder-y, but it’s nothing to freak out over.” Jimmy said. “I’m fine. Really”
“Well,” Scott started once more. “even if you are fine, I figured that maybe we could visit Pearl
and ask her about that thing Cleo mentioned to us.”
“Oh yeah.”
He watched as Tango looked between the two of them in confusion before Jimmy noticed and
clued him in.
“She want’s someone dead, but she hasn’t told anyone who.” He explained.
“Oh, that makes sense.” Tango replied.
Jimmy nodded. “I if were going to continue to do this, this whole monopoly on murder sort of deal
—then I agree with Scott. I think that this time it’d be a good idea to get ahead of the game while
I’m still acting normal.”
“Yeah, we don’t want a repeat of last time.” Scott noted bluntly.
“Right, sorry about that.” Jimmy blushed, likely recalling how he had pounced the other like a
sphinx just yesterday over his bloodlust and irrational thinking.
“Let’s just make sure it doesn’t happen again then, alright?” The other reassured him.
Tango nodded, and all of them talked for a while longer, eventually deciding that they’d head right
over to Pearl’s as soon as they were done eating.
To Scott’s surprise, Jimmy went to sit down on the other side of the chest right next to him after
grabbing a bowl of his own. Now within a closer proximity, he could probably see Scott’s face
much more clearly.
“I thought I told you to get some sleep.” The canary spoke mid-bite.
Scott made an annoyed noise before turning to look at him. “And I thought I told you I can’t
control that.” He continued to insist.
Jimmy simply stared at him intensely, as if trying to manifest a response to that that wouldn’t
cause a repeat of what happened between them last night. Scott remembered it all too clearly now.
God, what he’d give to just stop thinking about all this completely.
He’d tried to touch him. Right after Jimmy had confessed about his mutual restlessness over
Scott’s insomnia while they were still dating. The thought of it once again made his stomach
churn. Why would Jimmy ever trouble himself with staying awake for him? Was he really just
unable to fall asleep himself until he knew that Scott did? Did that come from a place of love, or a
place of obsession?
Try as he might, however, Scott just couldn’t convince himself that such a thing was creepy or
obsessive. In fact, he couldn’t help but find it endearing to know that Jimmy had felt the need to do
that. The thought that he’d hurt himself right along with him because he couldn’t stand the idea of
getting rest while the other couldn’t was, in a way, as flattering as it was heartbreaking.
But he refused to dwell on what he might have thought of that for any longer.
“Just- forget about it.” Scott forced the words out of himself, as if begging the other to stop giving
him reasons to yearn for him. “Please.” He emphasized. And Jimmy complied, if not with a
begrudging and sad look on his face.
The three of them continued eating in silence after that.
__
“So that’s why you were trying to kill Ren repeatedly!” Pearl yelled, apparently having connected
all of the dots to everything after Scott had all but offered her the same deal his team had made
with Cleo.
All three of them had been in her base for at least a half hour by now. They’d found it near the
village after they’d gotten its coordinates from Lizzie. There wasn’t much of a theme going on with
it, just a pretty-looking castle structure akin to that of a village church, except big enough to have
its own living room, kitchen, and house three people.
For the first ten minutes, Pearl had been talking their ears off about what had happened yesterday
at Martyn’s base (which everyone else had evidently nicknamed the ‘Skyscraper’ by now) which
Tango had to once again clear up that he was, in fact, doing okay after. The next ten minutes, she’d
spent showing them around the base she’d built, which Scott would be lying if he’d said he wasn’t
a little intrigued to hear about it. Finally, they’d managed to turn the conversation around to what
they had come for. Which was when Pearl had finally decided to reveal to them that it was,
unsurprisingly, Grian who she wanted dead.
“I knew something was up! It was Cleo who sent you to kill Martyn, wasn’t it?” Pearl continued.
“Pffft- what? Nooo-“ Scott watched as Jimmy tried to play off that accusation as nonchalantly as
he could manage. He convinced no one.
“It’s kinda adorable how bad you are at lying.” Pearl said condescendingly. Jimmy simply rolled
his eyes.
“But it’s fine.” She continued. “I would have figured that Cleo wouldn’t want this information
getting back to Martyn’s team for obvious reasons. And I have yet to have a reason to want her
team dead, so for the time being, her secret is safe with me.”
That wasn’t very reassuring if Scott was being honest, but he figured there wasn’t any room for
arguing on that subject anyway.
“Thank you, Pearl.”
Pearl grinned. “So, back to what I was saying. While I do want Grian dead, I don’t want you to
attack Bigb while doing it.”
“Why’s that?” Tango asked.
Pearl crossed her arms, body going lax. “I told Cleo about my plans a few days before the game
began. So there’s probably a reason why she recommended me to you.” She said. “That being, that
I hadn’t placed any bets on who was gonna be the first, or second, or third to reach their yellow or
red life, but rather a specific one, one that gambled on Grian being the one to get out of the game
for good before Scar did.”
“Oh, I see.” Scott quirked. Although more specific than the last one, this bet did still make sense to
him. The two did often seem to get out at nearly around, if not exactly at the same time during their
previous sessions. “So if we were to take you up on your offer, we wouldn’t directly be working
against any of Cleo’s gambles in the process.”
“Exactly.” The other replied. “But going off of that, if you were to attack Bigb as a means of
getting Grian down to yellow, then it’d only be a 50 percent chance that Bigb’s phantom-death
would trigger Grian’s actual death as a result. Instead, there’s a very real possibility that you might
knock Scar down to red instead, and then where would we be?”
That—also made a lot of sense. The three of them had just thought this whole thing over yesterday.
Scott remembered how they hadn’t wanted to risk Scar becoming a red life because he would be
too dangerous as one. Now, they had even more of a reason to keep that from happening. If Scar
was red and Grian was still green, then Pearl’s chances of winning her gamble on Grian getting out
first between the two would drop exponentially. As such, the only way to ensure that, at the very
least, they didn’t get Scar down to red, was to physically attack him alone, and no one else.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet though.” Pearl went on. “First off, I want to know what
you’re charging.”
The three threw some looks between them. Once again, it seemed as though none of them had
anticipated that they’d even get this far in the deal. There wasn’t much that they did need at this
point, but seeing as the game could go on for an indefinitely long amount of time, it wouldn’t hurt
to start stacking up resources and preparing for the long game.
“Have anything enchanted?” Jimmy suddenly asked.
Pearl sighed. “Tsk- I’m afraid to say my team doesn’t posses anything like that yet.”
“Then what do you have?” Tango chimed in.
“Honestly?” Pearl said, walking over to a nearby large chest and throwing the lid open for
everyone to see. “Mob droppings. Lots of them.”
Scott peered inside, as did Jimmy and Tango. The chest was filled to the brim with arrows. More
than what seemed reasonable. His eyes widened as he turned back to Pearl, who was sporting a
smug grin again.
“How did- did you make a farm Pearl??” Scott asked, still surprised.
“We made it together, actually.”
They all turned their heads in the direction of the other voice that suddenly came into the room.
“Lizzie.” Tango stated, seeming somewhat surprised.
“Hey Tango.” Lizzie said back. “How’ve you been?”
“I’m- I’m doing good.” The blaze stuttered out.
Scott looked between the both of them. Lizzie didn’t seem to have believed him right away.
“Really, I am.” Tango reassured her. Scott hadn’t forgotten that both her and Pearl had been
worried about what had happened with Tango and Impulse yesterday. And although Pearl hadn’t
been much to talk about that incident, it was likely that Lizzie knew something she didn’t. That
same something that Jimmy had refused to talk to him about.
Tango spoke again suddenly. “And how have you been with- the—um-“
Lizzie looked confused for a moment, before Scott saw her eyes widen slightly. “Oh- uh- not quite
yet, no.” She said hesitantly, leaving Scott and probably the other two in the room confused.
“Got it. Good to know…” Tango said back. They seemed to have dropped the mysterious topic
after that.
“Okay…” Pearl shrugged. “Well, anyway, what say we give you guys permanent access to our
farm for the rest of the game? Unlimited arrows and gunpowder doesn’t sound too bad, yeah?”
The three took a minute to talk it over with each other, but in the end, they were all on board with
the idea, so long as they had time to make a decision on it.
“Okay, deal.” Jimmy eventually spoke to Pearl. “Just as long as you give us some time to plan out
the murder.”
Pearl shrugged. “Makes no difference to me. So long as Grian reaches yellow before Scar reaches
red. That’ll at least even out the odds of Grian getting out before him.”
With that, it was settled.
Grian would without a doubt be their next target.
“I thought you would have been more excited about this.” Scott heard Tango saying to him.
“You’ve been wanting an opportunity to kill Grian since the very beginning, and now you get a
chance to follow through with it only three days into the game.”
Scott turned his head around slowly to look at him, raising an eyebrow.
“I am excited.” He said plainly.
“You sure don’t sound like it.”
“He’s just tired, that’s all.” Lizzie teased. “Can’t gather up enough strength to manifest even the
smallest of emotions…”
“Yeah dude,” Tango agreed. “You really need to get some sleep sometime.”
“You.” Scott said turning to him, making a closing gesture with his hand. “Shush.”
Scott figured that it was about time they wrapped this all up. A few moment’s later and he was
already on his way to the door. Jimmy had gone to follow him, but by the time they’d both stepped
outside, they were interrupted by Tango.
“Hey, before we head out, I wanted to speak with Lizzie for a little while.” He said, making the
both of them stop in their tracks. “Ah- is that alright?”
“Is something the matter?” Scott asked, suspicious.
“No, nothings wrong.” Tango said turning his head. “I just- needed to get an update from her about
something—personal.”
“That’s fine with me.” Scott heard Jimmy say right away. He wasn’t sure what was going on
between Tango and Lizzie, but he figured they still had time to spare considering how the canary’s
red life instincts seemed to be easily kept at bay for now.
“Fine. Whatever. Scott agreed. “If it’s personal, then we can just wait out here till you’re done.”
He saw Tango grin and make a move to walk back inside—before pausing all of a sudden.
“Uh-“ He heard Jimmy say right next to him.
“I don’t think-“ Tango said almost in unison.
“What?” Scott asked again, looking at the both of them. “Something wrong with that?”
“…No. Nothing’s wrong with that.” Tango spoke, seemingly hesitating with every word that came
out of his mouth.
“Tango-“ Jimmy spoke up again.
Tango simply shook his head, demeanor quickly shifting into something more relaxed. “I’ll be
quick, promise.”
And with that, he rushed back inside, moving much faster than normal. Scott wondered why Tango
had been acting so weird this morning.
He wondered if it had anything to do with him.

Jealousy
Chapter Summary
Tango talks to Lizzie. He starts to understand Scott’s bitterness a little better. The team
establish a plan of attack
Chapter Notes
Bit of a short chapter this week, but the next one is looking like it’s gonna be a long
one, so…
It was just a few minutes. He’d just be leaving the two of them alone for a few minutes. What
could even happen in that span of time? Nothing. That’s what.
Who was he kidding? Tango was going to be stressing out over this for the entire game, wasn’t he?
Alone together or otherwise, Scott’s presence still made Tango’s nerves go into high alert. Of
course he trusted Jimmy not to try anything with Scott physically. He knew he’d never do that to
him, just as he’d never do that to Jimmy with anyone else. The canary’s feelings for his ex stopped
and ended right there: at feelings.
But despite the fact that he knew all that, an obsessive part of him still refused to stop worrying. He
still felt as though something bad was going to happen if he were to leave Jimmy alone with him
for even a second. Would they talk during that time? Would he start liking him even more? What
even was there to like about this guy? Tango had meant it that night when he said he had no idea
what Jimmy saw in him and probably never would. He just couldn’t figure it out. Maybe. He was,
to some extent, intelligent and motivated. Tango would also be lying if he said he wasn’t a little
impressed by his resilience as well. But all that had nothing to do with love or affection or a deep
and personal understanding of another. Anyone could admire those traits in a person and not like
them that way. So Jimmy’s feelings for Scott still made no sense to him.
But that didn’t matter right now. Tango couldn’t control whatever might happen with Jimmy and
Scott while he was gone, so there was no point in worrying about it. Besides, he said he’d be right
back, and he’d meant that. So he just had to focus on the now instead and get through this
conversation as quickly as possible.
Tango turned a corner. Lizzie was still on the first floor and Pearl had left to go upstairs. Good.
The pink lady turned her head when he walked back in. “Tango.” She said after having just closed
a nearby chest. “I thought you were leaving?”
“And I thought you were gonna talk to Joel.”
Lizzie’s eyes widened before Tango saw her body slump as she let out a tired groan. “I’ve been
trying to, but he’s still been avoiding me!” She replied.
Tango rose an eyebrow at that.
“Okay! And maybe I’ve also been nervously putting it off. But we did agree that I had until I
reached my red life to do that.”
Tango nodded. “And then I get to kill you.”
Lizzie chuckled. “And then you get to kill me…”
The blaze smiled sadly at her. He wasn’t going to pretend he didn’t just have this revelation
yesterday, but he still felt as though he should let the other in on what he’d been thinking after his
earlier talk with Impulse.
“I’m not trying to force you to do anything. In fact, I’m not sure I’d be able to if those were my
intentions.” He crossed his arms, relaxing his posture. “But take it from me, sometimes the bad
outcome you’re expecting isn’t as bad as the one where you never say or do anything at all.”
Lizzie sighed. “I know what you mean.” She said calmly. “I’ll try to keep that in mind.”
Tango hummed. “And don’t think I haven’t been trying out what you told me either.” He saw the
other quirk her head up as he took a step forward. “Not gonna lie, I do hate Scott a little less now.”
Her eyes shined with realization before she broke into a smile. “But you still hate him?” She asked,
expression indicative of some disbelief in that statement.
“…No.” Tango admitted defeatedly. “I wouldn’t call it hate, but—there’s just a lot going on in my
head regarding him right now.”
“Uh huh…”
“But I know how close you guys are and how close he is with Pearl too. So I’ll still try to keep my
cool around him.”
“Thank you.” Lizzie nodded.
Tango stepped back. “Better get going then.” He grinned. “Have a pesky bird I gotta murder.”
“Good luck with that.”
“Thanks.” Tango turned around to walk back out.
“You’ll probably need it.” The other jested from behind him.
Tango rolled his eyes, smiling as he went to step out for good this time.
Nothing much seemed to have happened between his two teammates during the short period of
time in which the blaze was gone, but that hadn’t made him any less unnerved.
They were friendly. Too friendly. While Jimmy had fed him bits and pieces of what had happened
the other day while he was asleep, Tango was certain that he hadn’t told him all the details.
Although he had appreciated the fact that they weren’t all at each other’s throats anymore. At least,
not for now.
He heard his boyfriend laugh suddenly.
“Seriously,” Scott said, grinning at him. “All it’ll take is one random enderman pulling a single
block of sand out of the wrong spot and the entire thing collapses.”
Jimmy snorted. “It wasn’t that bad-!”
“It was terrible!”
The two continued talking, and Tango couldn’t help but feel as though he were somehow the third
wheel in his own relationship.
But that was a bit of a stretch. Or at least, he hoped it was. Tango may have had a personality
lining up more on the prideful end of the spectrum, but even he was capable of admitting when he
was jealous. He thought back to what him and Jimmy had said to each other last night. Tango had
insisted that he could handle this, that it didn’t have to be too big of a deal for them. At least, not in
the context of the team-ups and the game in general. That’s all they had to be to each other: just a
‘randomly’ put together team that was trying to win the game, same as everyone else. He knew all
too well that Jimmy would pull away from Scott the second Tango voiced any word of discomfort
about it, despite how badly he wouldn’t want to himself.
So, Tango played the waiting game. He wasn’t about to bud into their conversation unless he felt
as though Jimmy genuinely wanted the rescue, and he wasn’t going to try and separate them either.
He knew that Jimmy couldn’t flip his feelings on and off like a light switch. He also knew that
loving another person didn’t inherently mean that the first person wasn’t enough for them. That
was something he wished that Scott could have understood six months ago. But at the same time,
he was now starting to understand where much of the guy’s anger towards him was probably
coming from.
It would of been fine if they’d just been trying to rebuild a friendship between each other. But now
Tango knew for sure that Jimmy had never stopped liking him in that way. Not to mention that he
still had his own suspicions regarding Scott and whether or not he might still feel the same way.
Tango watched as Jimmy’s smile grew bigger, his overall attitude appearing to glow brightly as the
two continued interacting with each other.
Oh yeah, this was all definitely making him feel some weird kind of way.
Currently, they were on their way back to Scott’s base. All were aware that Grian’s place had been
close to his, as Cleo had apparently mentioned this to Scott during the beginning of the game. But
they weren’t about to storm the place without at least the fragments of a plan first, and for some
strange reason, Scott’s inventory had been completely full while both his armor and weapons were
close to breaking. So they needed to make a pit stop so he could grab some more of his things.
“So, we are attacking him today, right?” Jimmy spoke as they waited in Scott’s base for him to
gear up.
“Well, that all depends on how long you think you’re capable of remaining sane.” Scott replied
while rifling through his chests.
“Not very long…” The canary admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’ll be good till end of day,
at least. But I agree that we shouldn’t make any bets on how I’m gonna feel in the morning once I
wake up.”
“Right then.” Tango said, sitting down at the edge of a table. “Let’s go over everything we know
about this plan right now. We know we can only attack Scar since Pearl doesn’t want to take any
chances on him losing another life if we were to attack Bigb instead.”
Scott nodded. “And we know that Grian is prone to separating from his teammates for this exact
reason. He knows that other players are after his head and that attacking him alone will only bring
down his teammates and not himself.”
Tango hummed in agreement. He hadn’t thought about it that way, but now that Scott had
mentioned it, it sure was weird how Grian had just been walking about on his own mostly since
the start of the game. He figured that such a strategy, while still somewhat risky, did make some
kind of sense under his circumstances.
Scott went on. “Given the events of yesterday morning, and they’re obvious… History—with
Grian,” Tango saw him cringe slightly at that before continuing. “I think it’d be fair to assume for
now that Scar and Bigb are not on the best of terms.”
“So are you saying that they’d be separated from the group as well?” Tango questioned.
“It’s certainly a possibility. No one’s really seen them all in one spot since we all spawned in.”
“But I thought they were still working with Grian?” Jimmy asked.
Scott made some food he had vanish into his inventory before picking up a new axe. “Maybe in the
beginning.” He spoke. “But maybe they also got fed up with the whole idea early on after actually
experiencing it.”
Tango knew that no one in that room was about to bring up how much that paralleled what Scott
had tried to do on day one. All were already well aware of it.
“You’re thinking Scar pushed Bigb earlier, right?” The blaze said. He had been speculating on that
since it happened. Bigb had fallen off a cliff and through his phantom-death, cost Scar a life. Tango
had been wondering if perhaps that had happened due to Scar having pushed him off, as neither of
the two had confirmed to anyone how exactly that had happened.
“It’s what the rest of the server is probably thinking too.” Jimmy agreed.
Scott closed another chest, now appearing to have collected everything that he would need.
“There’s nothing we can actually confirm yet, but from what it looks like, I think that the group
might have split up completely, meaning that we’d probably have better odds of catching Scar
alone.”
Jimmy crossed his arms. “Alone would definitely be preferable.” He said, staring at the floor.
“He’s strong enough on his own, but fighting against three of us would be challenging.”
They were all still for a moment. Now they were all informed about what each other knew, but as
for what they were going to do with this information, not much came to light.
Tango thought back to when Grian had visited their base. He’d shown up, completely on his own,
had given them some gold, and then left. If it were true that Grian was still out doing his own thing
while his teammates were off somewhere else, then there was a chance that they’d be able to get
one of them alone, particularly Scar. But for that to happen, they’d need to know where Scar was
going to be in advance first.
“How about we camp their base?” Tango shrugged. He knew it was a flawed idea, but there wasn’t
much else he could come up with.
“Camp his base?” Scott questioned.
“Sure. Why not? They still all share a base, don’t they? We could all hide by there and wait for a
chance when it’s only Scar around, then jump him.”
The blaze saw Scott giving him a skeptical look. “Unless you have a better idea?” He asked him.
Scott simply raised a hand in defense. “That could work I guess.” He spoke calmly. “I mean, it
does sound a little time consuming, but if Jimmy says he’s feeling fine now then we would have all
day to follow through with it.”
“As much as I don’t want to spend all day waiting, I guess it could work.” He replied. “All things
considered, it does seem like a low-risk idea when compared to the alternative of just wandering
the map and hoping we run into him.”
Tango looked back to Scott, who seemed to have froze up at that.
“Have anything you wanted to add?” He asked him, and he watched the man straighten up
suddenly.
“I was able to get a good look at their base last night, actually.” He said. “I think I know a good
spot to spy on them from…”
It’s Always Been You
Chapter Summary
Jimmy, Tango, and Scott all camp out in the attic of Grian’s base. They try to find
ways to kill their boredom until someone shows up.
Chapter Notes
K, big chapter today (in more ways than one)
Seriously though, there’s so much freakin dialogue in this chapter I am in shambles
They’d ended up finding Grian’s base at the edge of the forest just up against the other end of the
world border.
While on their way there, Jimmy had tried to hold back on all of the questions that he had for Scott.
Questions like: ‘what were you even doing last night?’ And ‘Why were you near Grian’s base?’
And ‘Why are half the trees in this forest missing now?’
Actually, he was pretty sure he could piece together the answers to each of those on his own if he
really thought about it. But he still hoped to some extent that his assumptions were wrong.
He pulled up another branch, ducking under it with his teammates. “Here it is.” He heard Scott say
up ahead.
The canary looked up, past the trees, he was able to see a simple, yet tall cabin that sat close to the
edge of the map. It was made of wood and there wasn’t much else to it, other than the very
noticeable watchtower that protruded high above from the center of the cabin’s sloped roof.
“So, you said you know a good spot we could spy on them from?” He spoke.
“You still have that spyglass Cleo gave us?” Scott asked. And quickly, Jimmy quirked his head up
before summoning it out of his inventory and handing it to him.
Scott held it up, appearing to look through one of the windows of the cabin from far away.
“Doesn’t look like anyone’s home right now.”
Jimmy watched as Scott handed it back to him. “So we just gotta wait till that changes, I guess.”
“Till hopefully Scar shows up alone.” Tango added.
“And we can wait for them right there.” Scott said, holding a hand up and pointing towards the
roof of the build.
“Uh—where, exactly?” Tango asked.
“Right where I’m pointing.”
They both paused.
“Inside the house??” Tango questioned.
“In the attic.” Scott continued. “They aren’t using it for anything other than storage. It’s just a
room that they enter to gain access to the base of the watchtower.”
“Right, and you know all that—how?” Jimmy asked. He was seriously hoping that Scott hadn’t
been avoiding sleeping in exchange for doing literally anything else. Although despite what he
hoped, he also knew that there wasn’t any other explanation to his odd knowledge of the map and
Grian’s base that would make any actual sense.
Scott paused, a guilty look on his face. “Well—I was kind of walking around a bunch of spots
across the map last night-“
He fucking called it.

“-and I went to go find their base. It didn’t take that long, but I did end up sticking around for a
while and keeping an eye out for people. Only saw Bigb show up. He climbed the ladder up to the
top and then came back down with some stuff. Then he just went to bed, but no one else came, at
least not while I was there.”
Jimmy nearly groaned in frustration. He wasn’t sure he wanted much more information on what
kinds of shenegans the other had gotten up to last night. It would only worry him further, anyway.
Although the spying in particular didn’t come as much of a surprise to him. He knew that Pearl and
Scott had done their fair share of snooping during Third Life. So this wasn’t anything new.
“I don’t think they’d hear us if we were up there and were being at least relatively quiet.”
“And what if someone decides to go up there and use the watchtower?” Tango suddenly asked.
Scott shrugged. “Then we’ll either just run, or fight them depending on who it is. But if and when
we do end up fighting someone, it’ll either give us the uphill advantage, or at the very least, the
element of surprise.”
“I don’t know about all this…” Tango muttered.
“Well the idea was pretty flimsy to begin with.” Scott jabbed. “Besides, there isn’t really a strategy
that we could come up with that wouldn’t have to factor in luck to at least some extent.”
Jimmy figured he had a point with that. As badly as he wanted to control it, there was never not
going to be any risk with him regarding his last life. There was no way that anyone would be able
to keep him from dying first again if that was what the odds had in store for him, despite how
much Tango wanted to deny that.
“I’m alright with this.” Jimmy spoke quickly. He saw Tango’s head whip back at him, still looking
worried. Jimmy tried to offer him a gentle smile at that.
“I just don’t want you to lose your last life…” Tango sighed.
“It’ll be fine.” Jimmy tried to reassure him. “And even if I do, I can handle that.”
“God, I’m so sick of hearing that.” Jimmy quickly turned his head to Scott, his fists clenched and
body stiff. He wasn’t aware of what he was getting at. Jimmy was worried that he’d managed to
anger him again without knowing.
“You know that’s a lie, right?” Scott said looking at Tango.
“Scott-”
“Every time you come back to Empires after one of Grian’s games you’re in a mood for like, at
least the next week.”
Jimmy watched as he took a step closer, jabbing a finger into his chest as he spoke sternly. “You
need to stop defining yourself by how well you do here. You’re good at so many other things and
I’m tired of seeing you get weighed down back home every time you end up being the first one out
of some stupid game.”
Jimmy didn’t know how to respond to that. It seemed like none of them did, in fact, as Scott’s face
quickly gained a light tint of blush after a few seconds of the two of them staring at each other like
that.
“C’mon.” He said, changing the subject. “If we’re really gonna do this then we shouldn’t waste
any time while there’s no one home.”
Neither him, nor Tango bothered to comment any further on what Scott had just said. Jimmy
assumed he’d only try to deflect anything they might try to bring up anyway.
“Right, okay then.” Jimmy said, turning his head down to hide the blush tinting his own face.
He left it at that.
Jimmy heard Tango let out a low whistle as he looked around the attic. “Not gonna lie, this does
seem like a pretty cozy place to spy on someone.” He said.
“So, remind me what we’re suppose to do if someone comes up here?” Jimmy asked, looking at
Scott.
“We kill them.” Scott replied bluntly.
“Right…” Tango spoke skeptically. “And what if it’s Grian?”
“He’s green and still can’t attack us unless we attack him. Our plan will be compromised and he’ll
probably think we’re creeps, but nothing too bad’ll happen.”
That did make some sense. He figured that there wasn’t going to be much effort or thinking going
into this other than the three of them fighting as best they could.
“Just gotta make sure that when the time comes, you attack first and try to take damage so that we
can fight back.” Scott said, looking at Jimmy. “Should be easy to remember, it’s just the same
thing as last time.”
Tango seemed to have singled out a spot in the room at this point. Jimmy watched as he flopped
his body down against the wall and sunk to the floor carelessly. “What did end up happening last
time?” He asked. “You never really brought it up.”
He was right, they hadn’t talked much about the details after last night. Jimmy figured there was
no point to it since Tango hadn’t asked. Not to mention, it might have still been a delicate subject
for him. But looking back, he had lost a life to that whole fight that went down in the tower. It was
only fair that he knew what had happened so that they could all be more prepared for the next
fight.
Jimmy opened his mouth to speak, but was quickly beaten to it by a surprisingly enthusiastic Scott.
“Oh my god—“ He started. “it was actually kind of insane… ”
Scott proceeded to go over exactly everything that took place from the instance Jimmy had shot an
arrow into Ren’s chest, eventually joining in once he’d gotten past the fall. Tango seemed to be
listening to them both eagerly. He’d laugh at times and at others, would get angry in what Jimmy
would call a cute-kind of way, emphasizing that he’d wished he could have seen it all and that if
ever he was upset about losing his green life it would only be because dying was what took him
away at the last second.
Of course, none of them tried to bring up what happened with Impulse. They all already knew
about that. But more so, Jimmy felt as though they’d made their peace with it as well. No one
seemed angry or resentful over what had happened yesterday and Jimmy was able to simply go on
enjoying how the three of them could get hyped over something together. It felt like a breath of
fresh air after everything that had happened.
He really wished it could last.
“That… does sound pretty insane.” Tango laughed after they’d finished the story.
“I know right?” Scott replied.
“I mean it though.” Tango said, looking at Jimmy. “That’s really impressive how you were able to
take down Ren on your own in the end.”
Jimmy perked his head up at that, blushing. “Oh- well—I mean, it was really just the red life
instincts doing all the legwork there-“
“Please just let yourself have some credit for doing something cool just this once.” Tango groaned.
He then looked to Scott, as if silently asking him to back him up.
“You did good.” Scott said kindly. “Really.”
Jimmy couldn’t keep from blushing at that. He simply looked to the ground and smiled. “…Thank
you.”
No one talked for a second after that, but they all flinched when they heard a door slam.
Everyone was still. No one said a thing. And then—

“Now where did I put my pic axe?”
It was Grian.
As such, none of them made any attempt to move in on him. They all just stayed as they were,
Jimmy unknowingly holding his breath as he heard the avian walk around and open chests
downstairs.
He was looking for his pic. They could all gather that much. But what would happen if he were to
come looking for it up here? Worst case scenario: their cover was blown. That’s all. They’d just
have to peacefully walk away from this and go look for Scar the old fashioned way, using up even
more time in the day while Jimmy slowly got more unhinged, probably never being able to find
him in the end. What would happen then? Would he have to just kill someone on Pearl’s team? On
Cleo’s? On his own?? That’s not what he wanted!
He felt a hand squeezing his own all of a sudden. Jimmy looked over to his right to see Tango, who
calmly mouthed the word ‘breathe’ to him. Jimmy did just that, quietly letting his lungs collapse as
he breathed in again. He listened for Grian once more, who seemed to have stopped moving for a
second.
“-think I left it upstairs-“
Aaand—Jimmy was back into panic mode. However, so we’re his teammates. He looked back at
Tango, who’s eyes had shot open. Then at Scott, who carefully summoned an axe in his hands.
Most likely so he could carve out a back-door exit for them at a moment’s notice. They heard
Grian climbing up the ladder—one step, two, then another. Just as he was probably about to throw
open the upper trap door and be met with a very surprising sight, Jimmy heard him pause his
actions once more.
Jimmy could have sworn the earth had stopped rotating in that moment. And then—
“Oh you idiot.” Grian spoke to himself. “You gave it to Scar— Ughhh -“
He then heard him make his way back down the ladder and onto the first floor. He moved around
for a while longer—most likely crafting a new pic—before they all heard the front door open and
then slam again. Grian was gone.
The team waited in silence for a few more seconds, making completely sure that he’d left for good,
before Jimmy heard the faint noise of held-back laughter. He turned to Scott, who had a hand over
his mouth and a look of absolute absurdity in his eyes. Jimmy saw how weirdly Tango was looking
at him, but to the canary, he knew right away that this wasn’t just some sleep deprived crazy-laugh
that was coming out of him.
“Half a meter.” Scott chuckled. “He was half a fucking meter away from us!” He continued
laughing, looking to Jimmy. “Do you think he could have heard us breathing if he’d been paying
attention?”
Jimmy felt his own smile creeping up his face. It had been a while since he’d heard Scott laugh so
childishly like that. Jimmy had forgotten how contagious it was, as it wasn’t long before he started
laughing as well. “I don’t think he could have gotten any closer.” The canary said with a smile. “I
was so- so scared I was just gonna breathe wrong-“
Tango had his head in his hands, but that did nothing to hide the obvious grin he’d gained. “You
think you had it bad…” He started. “I was literally holding back a cough that entire time.”
Jimmy saw Scott grinning back at him. “Oh now you’re just being dramatic-“
“I was! Honestly!” Tango laughed. “It came at the worst possible time!”
They all continued laughing over the ridiculousness of that whole scene. Jimmy just kept smiling.
He still had his doubts, but he also figured it was safe to assume that whatever worries any of them
might of had over having to kill someone was all but diminished after that incident.
Not much happened after that. Sure, the tension was mostly gone, but that still didn’t do anything
to cure anyone’s boredom. No one had a clock on them, but Jimmy could tell just by peeking out
the window to look at the sun that it had been at least an hour since they’d first arrived. Scott was
right about one thing, it was definitely a good call to have jumped the gun on this plan instead of
waiting.
Jimmy felt a tinge of heat in his veins. He wanted to kill something. Not needed, but wanted. He
hated how he could easily be considered the player with the weakest will. No one else got as
bloodthirsty as early in their red life stage as he did. It was honestly embarrassing, not to mention
just one more thing for people to make fun of him for.
Scott on the other hand, could hold it off no problem. Maybe it was just Jimmy’s feelings for him
that were clouding his judgement, but he would argue any day that Scott was the best player
among them. Which only made him more baffled at the fact that he’d chosen to stick with him
during the first game. Right up until he’d met his end. And even after that, he’d hear later that
Scott had lost his own life while trying to avenge him. The knowledge of which, he remembered,
nearly made him combust. These sorts of things made him wonder what would have happened if
they’d been partnered for Double Life. Would the canary curse end up getting them both killed?
Would Jimmy’s bad luck and Scott’s resilience cancel each other out?
Would he have ever even gotten to know Tango?
Jimmy continued to watch as the sun slipped past the tree line, his head racing with ‘what if’s?’
that had been thought over a hundred times, with questions that he’d already answered.
“You should keep your head ducked down so no one sees you.” He heard Scott tell him from
across the room.
Jimmy looked back to him, having not noticed how long he’d been staring out the small window
for.
“Right, sorry.” He replied, moving to crouch back down near the floor.”
It was then that he heard a noise come from the end of the room where Tango had been. Jimmy
saw a small flash of light shine between Tango’s hands where they were held above a crafting
table, before something red and solid appeared in its place.
“Had some paper on me.” Tango said, holding up a small box. “So I uh- I made a deck of cards…”
“I can see that.” Scott replied flatly.
No one said anything for a moment, until Jimmy eventually spoke up.
“So, what are we playing?” He asked casually. From what Scott’s immediate reaction had told him,
he hadn’t been expecting him to involve him in this. And if Jimmy were being honest, neither did
he.
But none the less, no one objected to anything, and the three all eventually found themselves sitting
in a circle, playing Go Fish. There wasn’t much that went on with that game. If anything, it only
enhanced their boredom. But it was when Tango suggested that they play Slap-Jack instead that
things started easing up. They all kept repeatedly slapping each other on the hands while at the
same time, attempting not to make too much noise in case someone walked in again unexpectedly.
Despite this, both Tango and Scott were noticeably competitive during this game. The only thing
that managed to stop them was when Tango accidentally set the stack of discarded cards on fire
when he went to hit it. Thus, ending the game for them all with Scott in the lead.
“I don’t have any paper left…” Tango muttered sheepishly.
Jimmy only saw Scott grin at that, picking up the few remaining cards and stacking them neatly.
“Then I guess that means I win.” Neither him nor Tango seemed to argue with that. Although
Jimmy had the suspicion that if Scott did have more paper in that moment, he wouldn’t have told
either of them about it.
About another hour in and they were actually talking to each other in a casual manner.
“Do you think Ren would hate me forever if I went to attack him again?” Jimmy asked out of the
blue. He had been lying flat on the floor at that point, eyes still trained on the ceiling as he spoke.
It was Tango’s voice he heard that was first to answer. “Can’t be anymore than Impulse hates me.”
He said, indifferently. “Why are you asking?”
“Impulse doesn’t hate you.” Jimmy argued. “He’s just being dramatic. And—well, I just figured,
y’know—if Scar doesn’t show up today, maybe we can go back to Ren and Martyn as a last
resort.”
“That would be a terrible idea.” Scott commented. His voice could be easily heard from the other
end of the room.
“That’s why it’s a last resort, dude.” Tango said back.
“Well, it’s not gonna come to that. We’re inside his literal base. He’s bound to show up
eventually.”
“You remember when we were at Cleo’s place though?” Jimmy chimed in again. “Etho mentioned
that Bdubs had been out for six hours at one point. And it’s not like sleeping outdoors or in
unfamiliar places overnight is uncommon for this game.”
“And what if we were right and Scar’s actually trying to avoid his team?” Tango said.
Jimmy heard Scott yawn, his body seeming to have slumped to the ground while making a soft
‘thud’ noise in its wake. “He’d still have to turn up occasionally to replen his stuff, right?”
Jimmy stretched his body a bit, sitting up to look at the both of them. Tango seemed more
discouraged than his tone was letting on.
“This whole camping thing was stupid.” The blaze muttered. “I’m sorry—maybe we should just
try something else?”
Jimmy shook his head. “It’s not stupid. It’s our best option out of a bunch of terrible options. If
nothing happens, then that’s just bad luck, but it wouldn’t be anyone’s fault.”
Tango’s sad expression lifted up slightly at that. Scott didn’t seem to care much for it, but
regardless, he still didn’t voice any disagreement.
They continued to stay up there. Talking, coming up with possible future strategies for winning,
occasionally playing some boring game like I Spy. Jimmy had asked Scott at one point to show off
his ice powers, and he eventually obliged under the condition that Tango melt anything he make so
as to not have any evidence of him breaking the no-abnormal powers rule.
He’d started off by covering the ceiling with swirly frost designs before moving on to smaller, but
more detailed skills such as forming an ice sculpture of a frog in the palm of his hand. The canary
was surprised at how fascinated Tango’s reaction was to all this. Although he figured that must
have just been because he hadn’t seen Scott’s abilities up close before like he had.
“Do a horse!” Tango yelled giddily.

Scott rolled his eyes at that. “Only if you stop talking to me like I’m a balloon artist.” He yawned
while indulging the blaze anyway. It took him only a few seconds to form it and then toss it over to
the other. “I don’t care how interesting you think it is though, you’d better melt it when you’re
done staring.”
Jimmy heard Tango let out an annoyed whine, but he still did exactly that after a few minutes.
“C’mon man, everyone’s either bent or broken the rules of this game at some point. They’re
already so loosely-held to begin with. I seriously doubt anyone would wanna kick you out over a
few paperweights.” The blaze said.
“Aww, you really think they’re that cool?” Scott mocked.
“They’re made of ice, so-“
Jimmy let out a laugh at that. “That is the most predictable thing I’ve ever heard you say…”
It was late into the afternoon now. It had to be. The light was fading from the edge of the window
and Tango looked to be getting tired again. Jimmy figured he’d start feeling that way fairly early
into the day this time. He didn’t think the other would have gotten much sleep from the night
before anyway seeing as his internal clock was off.
A few minutes later and Tango was fast asleep, sitting down, his body leaned up against the back
of the wall and the side of a crafting table. Jimmy watched his boyfriend’s chest rise and fall
slowly. He had probably fallen asleep without even intending to. That was fine though, he knew he
could just wake him up if anything happened.
It was Scott, however, who concerned him more. From what Jimmy could guess, he hadn’t slept a
wink since at least yesterday morning. And as of right now, he could see him tiredly scrolling
through the messages in his comm, eyes half-lidded, but fighting to remain open.
They’d all been silent for a while now. Not for any problematic reasons, but simply because the
two seemed too tired now to do anything else other than keep to themselves. But even so, Jimmy
couldn’t help but find it odd how much he was enjoying his time up here. Even now, as he was
enjoying this small moment of peace between the three of them after going so long without one.
Messing around at the beach near Cleo’s base was fun, but he’d still been missing Tango that entire
time, had still been waiting on him to message him back.
Now, was different, however. Now he had them both here with him. They weren’t doing much, but
the fact that they had been getting along for this long was good enough for him. To a certain point,
he felt frustrated over it. This was all that it took. Just the both of them here, not actively hating
each other would have been enough for him. Was that asking for so much?
Jimmy blinked slowly. He looked over to his side, Tango was still leaned up against the wall right
next to him, breathing shallow and fully asleep. The canary gazed at him lovingly. He moved a
hand to reach for the one that was rested on the floor next to him and squeezed it gently. He then
looked to Scott, his exhausted eyes still trained on the screen in front of him.
Yes. Yes it was asking for a lot, wasn’t it?
This couldn’t go on forever. Maybe he thought it could have in the very beginning. But this,
them—they just weren’t built to last. Ever since the game had started they’d been fighting on and
off. It was obsessive on Jimmy’s end to want to try and keep them both in his life, and unhealthy on
their end to have to put up with all the drama.
Jimmy let go of Tango’s hand, quietly moving to stand up and walk over to Scott, who didn’t seem
to have noticed him approaching until he was sat right beside him.
“Anything interesting going on?” He asked him.
Scott yawned, still looking at the screen. “Nope. Nothing.”
Jimmy gave him a sad look for a moment before calmly reaching his hand up to put it on the top of
the device and slowly pushed it downward along with Scott’s hands that were still holding it.
Scott didn’t look at him right away. He simply stared out into the front of the room, wordlessly
before shutting his eyes and furrowing his brows.
“What are you doing?” He asked the canary in a hushed voice. Jimmy continued to look at him
worriedly. He got the uncomfortable feeling that that question had more layers to it then it
appeared to.
“You should try to get some rest.” He said, while slipping the comm out of the other’s hands and
placing it to the side.
Scott shifted slightly, finally angling his head to look back at the other. “I’m really, really sick of
hearing that.”
Jimmy smiled calmly. The other seemed so far gone at this point. He wondered if he was half
asleep already, or perhaps his brain was on autopilot. Either way, the grogginess was still very
apparent with him. “There’s literally nothing else to do right now.” He spoke. “At least try.”
Scott scoffed, rolling his head back childishly. “That’s the problem.”
Jimmy looked at him, now confused all of a sudden. “What is?”
Scott paused. He looked as though he wasn’t sure if he should say what he was thinking of saying
next. Or maybe he just didn’t know how to phrase it? He was exhausted, after all. Maybe his
thoughts were just lagging behind?
“When there’s nothing to do—I-“
Scott closed his eyes again. His mouth was still halfway open and he looked like he was choking
on his words.
“You… what ?” Jimmy nudged. What was Scott even talking about? What problem did he have
with simply doing nothing?
“Damn it—I just- I can’t.” Scott then suddenly leaned in closer to Jimmy. Much closer than the
other had anticipated.
The emotion that came first after that was surprise. But then Scott did something more in that
instance. He looked up at Jimmy, their eyes meeting with such a short distance between them.
There they stayed, locked in a stare with Scott’s half-lidded eyes being the calmest that they’d ever
looked to Jimmy in forever. He wasn’t stoping for anything. Nothing about this was accidental. He
wasn’t pulling away.
Scott gave the canary a drowsy, peaceful smile, and moved his head down to rest directly on the
other’s shoulder.
Jimmy’s panic was instantanious. He wondered if he should get up, move away. He didn’t want to,
of course. But that already made him feel guilty enough. An even stronger emotion that he was
feeling in that moment was confusion. Anxious, rushed, confusion. This had to be Scott’s
grogginess making him act weird. But even in a tired state—why would he choose to do this??
Despite how he might have been feeling, he certainly didn’t let it show on the outside. Jimmy
stayed put, one side of his brain screaming at him to move while the other told him to lean closer.
By some miracle, he managed to ignore all of his racing thoughts for just a moment to continue the
conversation, still determined to ask Scott what it was he was talking about.
“D-do you not trust me to wake you up if something happens?” Jimmy stuttered out, trying his best
not to acknowledge how weird this all was. “Is that why you don’t want to rest right now?”
“Mmm… no.” Scott didn’t open his eyes. He just nuzzled the side of his head into Jimmy’s neck,
making him blush even harder. “I don’t- I don’t trust myself.”
“Wh-what do you mean?”
Scott let out a shuddered sigh, and Jimmy felt his hot breath touch his neck, sending a shiver down
his spine. When was the last time they’d been this close? Touched each other? How long had it
been??
“Can’t trust what I think,” Scott continued, now slurring through half his words. “what I do …” He
ran a hand over Jimmy’s own before deciding to hug his entire arm. The canary’s still made no
attempt to move it. All he did was tremble under the other’s every touch. That’s all he felt himself
able to do right now. That, and freak out over how confusing this was.
“Not when you’re here. Not when we’re together.”
Jimmy could have sworn he’d felt his heart actually sink into his stomach after hearing that. Christ,
Scott had been sending some really weird signals this entire game, but this just sealed the deal. He
did lean into him when they were hiding in that ravine. That wasn’t a trick of the light. He did
reach out for him in the water. That wasn’t the waves bringing them closer! And as for why he was
still here. Why he hadn’t even bothered to try leaving the game yet. Why he insisted on staying
with him and helping him in this game despite how damaged they’d left each other after the last
one—
No. No, that wasn’t possible. Scott made his choice. He was the one who decided to end things.
He’d made his desires loud and clear that day and they absolutely involved leaving him for good.
But he had to be sure. He had to know once and for all just what Scott thought of him.
Jimmy opened his mouth to speak again, Scott still resting on his shoulder with his eyes closed. “Is
that why you won’t sleep?” He whispered to him carefully. He got the uncomfortable feeling that
he was taking advantage of Scott like this. The man was clearly not entirely aware of the thoughts
he was voicing out loud that came from a brain running on 30 minutes of sleep at best. But he
needed to ask just one more thing of him.
“Mmhmm…” Scott said back. He seemed hardly conscious.
Jimmy swallowed, now unknowingly gripping the other’s hand with his own. “Because of— me?”
A long second passed, and just as Jimmy started thinking Scott had finally fallen asleep—
“-It’s always been you.”
Jimmy’s shoulders slumped. He rested his head back against the wall. He felt his eyes starting to
water, but he didn’t cry. He just sat there in complete, horrified awe at what he’d just heard.
“…Okay.” He muttered quietly, voice shaking. It didn’t matter if Scott was awake or not to hear
his response. It was mostly for himself, anyway. “I see now.”
And just like that his ex was out like a light. Jimmy remained there, frozen in place. Meanwhile
Tango was still right across from him, resting in one of the corners of the room. Jimmy wondered
what he should do in this situation. If he moved, he’d risk waking Scott up. If he stayed, he’d risk
Tango seeing them like this if he woke up. But even so, he just couldn’t find the energy to care as
much. He was still busy thinking about what Scott had just said.
That entire time, he’d thought it was just him. He thought he was the one being obsessive over
something that would never come to be. Something that had already run its course ages ago. It was
frustrating, really. But as the canary’s mind started to go over everything that had happened since
the start of Trust Life—no, since the end of Double Life—it made him now understand in some
part why Scott had left in the first place. Was it unreasonable for him to not even consider things as
they were? Maybe. Was it even more unreasonable for Jimmy to cling to Tango even while Scott
was slipping through his fingers? Perhaps it was.
Months later though, and he still didn’t think he could have picked between them. But he had tried,
hadn’t he? He tried to let Scott know that—had things happened the other way around—had Tango
been the one he’d been with before the third game, his reaction to the situation wouldn’t have been
any different. Scott didn’t seem to care, though. Told him he didn’t know what he was thinking
after the canary let him know that he absolutely could have fallen for someone in a week,
regardless of what he might think otherwise, just as he had with Scott during Third Life.
But despite that, Scott just left. Over a year of seeing each other and an even longer timeline of
friendship—and it took him all of five minutes to decidedly end things between them for good.
Well, if that hadn’t made Jimmy just feel fucking worthless.
But in hindsight, perhaps Scott did too. Jimmy hadn’t spent nearly this much time around him
since then, and from the few times that they had seen each other, it didn’t appear to him that the
man was any less happy without him. At least, from a distance it didn’t. Whenever Scott did appear
to be acting cold, angry, or emotionless around other people, Jimmy would try to humble himself,
would try not to assume that whatever was making Scott upset had anything to do with him. But
then he’d hear concerns coming from everyone else on the server, everyone who was close with
him on Empires being worried about his mental health. Then, he’d wake up to frozen or destroyed
builds in Scott’s own empire, seemingly ruined for no reason.
Maybe he was just unable to fathom that anyone could get this upset over losing him. Didn’t want
to believe that he was the direct cause of all this. But now that he’d been pushed to interact with
him once again and been forced into seeing things up close, now that he’d seen broken sobs and
burning buildings, angry outbursts and insomnia—now, he was starting to understand the bigger
picture.
Scott got stuck on the shitty end of a bad deal. This situation was unfair for everyone, but most of
all, for him.
He remembered thinking at some point that the breakup was his punishment. It had hurt so badly
—still hurt—that he’d thought that it was payment enough for hurting the other the way that he
did. He thought Scott would have gotten over it quicker than he would have since he was the one to
initiate it, despite the fact that Jimmy felt as though he’d never be able to get over him. All he felt
was that a part of his heart was missing. But if leaving him was what the other wanted, if that was
what made him happy—well, then, he could live with that.
But he wasn’t. He never was. And knowing that now made Jimmy all the more confused. Just
what did Scott want from him exactly? He was upset when Jimmy tried to hold on to him, he
remained upset for months after he let him go. What did he want him to do? To leave Tango and go
back to him begging for forgiveness?? He could do as much as that last part, but when it came to
leaving Tango, he just couldn’t follow through on that. Because—as he’d tried to tell him before—
had Tango and Scott’s roles been reversed, he would have done the exact same thing, and picked
neither of them.
And so, he sat there. Once again, being left with the same choice. And once again, choosing to stay
put. The first time around, he kept still so as to not lose Tango, and this time, he was staying still so
as to not lose Scott. Was this all he’d ever be good for? Just doing nothing? Would he continue
torturing himself and any partners he’d have with his indecisiveness for the rest of his life? Until
he’d lost them both?
This was all too much for him to think about. Jimmy was starting to wish that he could just fall
asleep and forget his problems like Tango had, or walk away from them like Scott had. He figured
that was one thing they both had in common. Perhaps what all of them had in common. They were
all terrible when it came to fixing personal problems. It almost made Jimmy laugh.
He didn’t sleep after that. Didn’t move either. Someone had to be awake in case something
actually happened. But with all these new thoughts and realizations taking up space in his head, he
was starting to understand why Scott would do anything to force his mind elsewhere. It was
torturous, but he deserved it. At least that was one thing he could do for the both of them without
having to choose, just stay awake so they could sleep.
Just stay awake.
It was another door slam that finally woke up both of his teammates. The second he heard it, the
canary made a mad scramble to get away from Scott, who had only snuggled in closer to him since
he’d fallen asleep. He didn’t bother to look back at him. He didn’t want to know whether or not he
remembered what they’d talked about. At least, not right now.
If Jimmy’s red instincts weren’t on fire before, then they certainly were now. It must have been no
more than a second that had passed after he heard that door slam, and already he wanted to rip off
the head of whoever the hell woke Scott up after he’d finally managed to fall asleep. He’d kill
them. He’d make them sorry. He’d-
“Sheesh, we have way too much gold, like, seriously.”
“There’s not that much there-“
The fog in Jimmy’s head seemed to clear ever so slightly upon hearing the sound of two voices
from downstairs. Neither of them were Grian’s.
He listened closer.
“-So, you’re still not gonna tell me where he is?”
That was Bigb’s voice. Definitely.
“I already told you, I don’t know where he is.”
And that one was-
Scar.
“Can you just knock it off already? I know you’re lying. If he didn’t tell you, then he didn’t tell
anyone. And I know that you know.”
“Give it a break Bigb, he doesn’t want to talk to you.”
“Then why’d he put me on his team?”
“Those were random-“

“Scar, I swear to god-“
Jimmy looked across the room to Tango, who was now clearly awake and quick to react, having
pulled out his sword as he crawled over to the trapdoor on the floor that connected to the attic. The
two made eye contact. To Jimmy’s relief, the other didn’t seem to question why he was sitting in a
different spot in the room then before he’d fallen asleep.
Jimmy looked over to Scott, who seemed more-so dazed and confused at what was going on.
Jimmy held a finger up to his lips, making a ‘quiet’ gesture to him, which he seemed to pick up.
The both of them followed Tango’s lead and crouched over the trapdoor. Right away, the canary
pulled out his comm and wrote down a message in chat, being careful not to hit ‘send’ when he
finished. He then held the screen up for Tango and Scott to see.
<SolidarityGaming> There’s two people down there, but one of them’s Scar. Should we chance it?
Tango immediately shook his head ‘no’ at the same time Scott shook his head ‘yes’. They then
both glared at each other, seemingly in some sort of silent feud.
Meanwhile, the talking downstairs wasn’t getting any quieter.
“Look,” Bigb continued. “I know you hate me, but ‘I’m really just trying to-“
“I don’t hate you.” Scar said, his tone sounding a mix of surprise and hurt.
“You- you don’t?”
“No!”
There was a pause.
“Do you—hate me ?” Scar asked.

He heard Bigb sigh deeply.
“Jealousy… doesn’t always translate into hate.”
“I’ll take that as a ‘maybe’ I guess-“
“It’s a ‘no’, Scar.”
The two stopped talking for a moment after that. As invested as Jimmy was in that conversation, he
still wanted to stab someone really badly. Quickly, he wrote up another message on his comm.
<SolidarityGaming> I really need to kill them. Right now.
As expected, both his teammates gave him a look of concern. If he were to work past all of the red
haziness in his head, Jimmy could see more clearly how listening in on this might be beneficial for
them. Scar might spill where exactly Grian was on the map and what he had been up to for this
long, but the haze wasn’t clearing up.
Instead, all the canary could think of was how the universe couldn’t even let Scott rest for so much
as an hour before throwing him back into chaos. How he now knew that he was to blame for all of
Scott’s restlessness in the past. How could he have not seen it before? How could he be so
concerned about him and yet so blind as to what was causing him pain in the first place?? If that
were the case, then maybe he deserved to die. Maybe they all did. Regardless, he’d get to fight
some people or die while doing it. It was a win-win. How could he not go for it?? He wanted to
kill. Needed to kill.
Fuck it.
Jimmy threw open the trap door and dropped straight down, sword in one hand while his other
gripped the side of the ladder, slowing his fall as he slid. He could tell that Scar barely had a
chance to register what was going on before Jimmy dealt a blow right on top of his shoulder. Scott
was right about another thing, they definitely didn’t see this coming. Scar had been standing right
by the ladder when it happened. Lucky him.
It took Scar another second to summon his sword, but that was all Jimmy needed to hit him again,
forcing the other backwards into the wall. The canary could hear two different voices screaming
from above him, but he wasn’t concerned about what they were saying right now. All he wanted
was for someone to die.
“Jimmy what the heck -!” Tango was quick to follow him down to the first floor, Scott was right
behind him. They both drew their swords just as Bigb drew his.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” He said. “How long were you all up there??”
“Doesn’t matter.” Tango smirked. Jimmy could see that shine in his eyes that showed up when he
got excited. He suddenly remembered that Tango hadn’t been in an actual armed fight during this
game until now. He may have wanted to stay in the attic to be cautious with Jimmy’s last life, but
now that he had jumped the gun anyway, the blaze seemed eager to get started.
Scar was back on his feet now. He took a quick look over at Jimmy, his eyes shifting between the
three of them. He looked almost worried. Good.
“Please don’t make me do this, guys.” Scar said.
Well, he hadn’t expected to hear that, but he didn’t care either way.
Jimmy lunged at him, aiming straight for Scar’s center. That was his first mistake, as Scar dodged
him easily before swinging his own sword at the canary’s side, knocking the wind out of him
completely. But it was after his injury that his teammates were finally able to take action. That was
when the entire cabin broke into chaos.
He saw Tango go straight for Scar as well, meanwhile Scott was occupied with Bigb. Jimmy
remembered that they weren’t suppose to be fighting with him, but he figured that so long as he
wasn’t beat down to zero hearts, it’d be fine. The two remained in a struggle while Jimmy took a
deep breath and got back up. He rammed back into Scar’s side as he was trying to fend off Tango.
Scar tumbled across the room once more. That was Jimmy’s second mistake: forcing a small
distance between Scar and all of the other players.
Without missing a beat, Scar swapped out his sword for a bow. He notched an arrow in the center
of it as Jimmy watched Tango thoughtlessly speed towards him. He pulled back on the string right
as the other was on top of him, and let go, firing an unordinary, shiny-looking arrow right into
Tango’s stomach. Tango fell back on the ground, seeming more surprised than he was in pain.
“Th-that dealt like four hearts-!”
Scar didn’t hesitate to fire another. This time, hitting Tango in the shoulder. His bow was
enchanted. Damn it—of course they had enchanted stuff! He’d probably stolen the enchanting
table again as well!
This didn’t deter Jimmy, however. He continued trying to attack the other while being met with an
arrow himself. In the corner of his eye, he could see Scott watching him, still fighting with Bigb,
only now looking increasingly more panicked. Trying not to kill another player while they were
most certainly trying to kill you was, of course, a more difficult and complicated battle.
Jimmy noticed that he was now on only three hearts. When did that happen?? His eyes were
glowing redder than ever now as he tried in vain to reach Scar one last time, but was only met with
another arrow aimed right at his face. But having cleared up some of the red fog in his head at that
point, he was able to see the direct attack coming this time, and dodge accordingly.
This was Jimmy’s third and final mistake.
Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Jimmy saw Scar’s eyes widen. The enchanted arrow
nearly grazed the side of his head, but otherwise missed him completely as he jumped to the side.
He thought that now would be his chance. Now Scar had no time to change weapons or load
another arrow. He’d get one final hit on him as soon as he closed the small distance between them.
Jimmy leaped forward, swung his sword—
—and completely ignored the flying arrow that was now heading straight for Tango, who was still
lying on the ground right behind him.
Time sped up again, and in a second, everything went black.
Tango was shot by GoodTimesWithScar

Chapter End Notes
I’msorryimsorryimsorryimsorryim-
Scott - Green
Jimmy - X
Tango - Yellow
Cleo - Green
Bdubs - Green
Etho - Green
Grian - Green
Scar - Yellow
Bigb - Green
Ren - Green
Martyn - Yellow
Impulse - Yellow
Pearl - Green
Joel - Green
Lizzie - Green
Together
Chapter Summary
Scott tries leave the game. Tango convinces him to stay
Chapter Notes
***Please read***
A small but important tw for anyone who is uncomfortable with topics of su*cide.
While all the deaths in this story are non-permanent and function on video game logic,
there are some scenes in this chapter that might immitate it fairly closely. I didn’t tag
this since this is more of a video game death attempt than a real one, but if anyone
knows of a tag that I can use that indicates this, please let me know and I’ll update
accordingly.
Thank you
“I- I didn’t mean to-“
Tango heard Scar trying to verbally stumble his way through an explanation, but any words he
might of had seemed to fall flat.
He’d failed. Tango had told his partner he’d make sure he wasn’t the first one out this time—and
he failed. He couldn’t do it.
Jimmy just vanished mid-jump, all of his items now scattered across the floor. And for a single
moment, the entire room went silent in shock.
And just as quickly, that silence was broken.
Tango felt his body go ablaze. His conscious mind had all but two seconds to realize what was
about to happen before his subconscious took over. The sclera in his eyes flashed red, he felt his
hair and the edges of his body engulf in flames. Tango was mad. His mind was in pure defense
mode now, and despite his yellow status, all he could see was red.
The blaze lunged directly at Scar, catching him off guard and slicing a clean, deep mark right
across his chest with his sword. Scar stumbled over his own feet and fell on to his back, flashing
red quickly before Bigb disappeared.
GoodtimesWithScar was slain by Tango
bigbst4tz2 died
He almost laughed at that. It seemed that fate was extra cruel today and wouldn’t even let him kill
Grian as he’d intended to. Guess he’ll just have to keep trying then.
Tango jumped right on top of Scar and swung his sword again, this time, hitting a shield that the
other had summoned at the last second. Seeing that hadn’t changed his agenda, however. As far as
Tango was concerned, killing Scar now was all but a matter of stabbing. As such, he just kept
hitting it. Again, and again. Dealing blow, after blow against the wooden shield until Scar finally
had the guts to swap it out for a sword and try to swipe back. But Tango still had the upper
advantage, and he used it to pin down Scar’s arm with his foot, allowing him to continue stabbing
the other as he lay there helpless.
“Tango-!” Scar yelled, panicking. But his pleas meant nothing to the blaze. If anything, they only
encouraged him more.
Eventually, his body flashed red once more. Tango wasn’t sure who he’d killed that time. It might
have been Grian. It might have been Bigb again. He didn’t care much anyway. He’d keep stabbing
Scar until he died himself. He didn’t care how long it took. He’d end him right here, right now-
Splash!
All thoughts of murder came to a halt as Tango suddenly felt the cold, wet, prickly sensation of
water being thrown on him. He turned his head around to see Scott, panting heavily and holding a
now empty water bucket.
Tango’s head suddenly came back on his shoulders. What—was he doing? He looked down at
Scar, who stared back at him for a moment, face holding a shocked and horrified expression. They
both stared at each other for a second before Scar took initiative and shoved him off, scrambling
away so he could quickly stand back up. All he appeared to be able to do then was hold his sword
up defensively, slowly and fearfully backing away.
“Go!” Tango heard Scott yell at him. And Scar obeyed, hesitantly turning his back to them before
running out the front door and out of sight.
It took Tango a second to regain his bearings, but once he did, he started remembering where he
was and what he was doing. Jimmy had died, he’d phantom killed Scar twice on his own, and
Scott-
Before he could think for even a second longer, Tango was met with a new type of problem. He
felt a deep gash running down his back. He was quick to get up, turning around to see Scott more
clearly, now having swapped the bucket out for a sword.
“Scott…” Tango said, confused. “What- what are you-? ”
Another swipe was aimed at him, but Tango was able to dodge, if a bit clumsily.
“What are you doing??” Tango finished. Scott stared back, his expression a mixture of anger and
sorrow.
“Stay still.” He commanded.
Tango, of course, wasn’t about to start taking orders from this guy.
He dodged the other’s blade once more, then again. He watched as Scott got more and more
frustrated with each missed attempt, his movement becoming even more erratic. Eventually, Tango
had been backed into a corner. At that point, Scott opted for running straight at him instead,
leaving Tango no room to continue dodging. Scott went to slice the edge of the blade right across
the other’s neck, but was met with resistance from Tango’s end as he held up his own sword to
keep the other’s at bay.
“Seriously Scott!” Tango breathed out frantically. “What the hell are you doing? Are you mad at
me?? You’re just gonna end up killing yourself if you keep attacking me!”
“That’s the idea!” Scott grunted, digging his heels into the ground and pushing back even harder
against Tango, their bodies now almost pressed flat against each other.
“You can’t— urggg— attack me-“ Tango spoke, struggling to get the words out. But Scott still
didn’t seem to care, as he continued to push back even harder.
At this rate, Scott was going to make him cut himself in half with his own sword. Tango searched
frantically for a way out. Eventually, figuring out he could fight with something other than a
weapon and swiftly opting to knee Scott straight in the stomach.
Scott seemed easily surprised at this, choking on air and lessening his stance long enough for
Tango to overpower the other and shove him off completely. Scott flew back at the shove, just
barely managing to stay on his feet as the two of them stood there, panting for breath.
“You’re not a— cough —red life- you idiot-“ Tango said, still gasping for air. “You’d- you’d be
breaking the rules!”
The other continued standing there, breath starting to even out as he straightened his posture.
“Since when do you care about the rules?”
“Wha-? Well I don’t always do, but this one would be a pretty big one to break! Don’t you think??”
Scott just continued staring, panting, the dead silence between them seeming to stretch on forever
until he spoke again.
“Okay.” Scott said. “Okay then.”
Tango’s shoulders slumped, his body going lax. But just as he was starting to think he’d convinced
Scott to see reason, the man wordlessly turned heel and started running out the front door and into
the forest outside.
At first Tango was confused.
And then, he realized.

“ Shit-! ” He uttered quickly, before running off to follow him.
The blaze tried his best to keep his teammate in sight, ducking under branches and swerving past
trees. He knew Scott was fast, but he was faster. After a few seconds of chasing, he started to
realize where exactly they were going. Scott was headed for the ravine. He was going to jump off.
Tango had known it. He had known it since the first day that something weird was going on with
Scott. Maybe it was his friends that got him to consider coming back to the Life games, but after
Grian had announced the teams, he could have had every player on that server beg him to stay and
he still would have ignored them all in favor of trying to leave.
All but one, that is. And that one player didn’t even have to ask.
Well then, that was Tango’s fear confirmed. Scott was only sticking around to spare Jimmy,
because of course he knew how important these games were to him, and of course he wouldn’t try
to off himself if it meant killing Jimmy in the process. Perhaps it was even more than that. Maybe
he was using this game as an excuse to get close to him. Even though he was the one who broke
things off, and the one who kept his distance from Jimmy after Double Life. Come to think of it,
did Scott even know what he was doing? Did he want Jimmy back or did he just like torturing
himself??
Well, he certainly knew what he wanted in this moment. That’s for sure.
Tango caught up to Scott right as they broke into a small clearing. He could see the edge of the
ravine from this distance. He had maybe five seconds to either tackle Scott to the ground or
convince him not to jump off, and that latter option seemed way easier said than done.
He reached his arm out, taking a swipe at the other’s shirt. Scott dodged it, now running even faster
in spite. Damn it!
“Scott wait-!” Tango yelled. The other didn’t so much as turn his head. He simply kept running.
Tango tried to think of something, anything. He was ten feet from the edge, five feet—
“-I know you still love him!”
He watched as Scott dug a heel into the ground in front of him, stopping dead in his tracks right at
the very edge. He didn’t turn around right away and there was a great length of silence that passed
between them as they both caught their breath, but even from that angle, it was easy to tell how
surprised he was at that statement.
“…You—you don’t know anything about me.” Scott finally spoke, his tone more than a little
unsettling. But still, Tango wasn’t about to give in here.
“Oh come on.” The blaze said back. “It hasn’t been more than five minutes since Jimmy died and
I’m already trying to talk you off a ledge. You’re not fooling anyone.”
“I’m not trying to.” Scott said, a now very noticeable shake in his voice. “Just—like- who cares
anymore?”
“Scott…”
“Are you proud of yourself for coming to that conclusion?” The other suddenly yelled, turning
around carelessly to face him. Tango could now easily see that he had tears in his eyes. “Do you
want a fucking award for figuring it out??”
Tango just stood there, mouth open, but unable to force any words out. Scott messily ran a hand
through his hair, he now looked more worried than angered. If anything, he seemed scared. Maybe
he was realizing something too in that moment.
“God—“ He spoke again. “I’ve been trying, and trying not to think about him. Day and night I try
to shut my thoughts up by doing something—anything—but, I just-“
He took a deep breath in, his next words coming out much quieter.
“ I miss him…”
Tango let him catch his breath after that. The amount of emotion Scott was showing right now was
scary. He looked so damaged—so vulnerable. It was concerning. This wasn’t like the Scott he’d
envisioned in his head. The bitter one who cared only about himself and ditched Jimmy the
moment things became difficult between them. This was more akin to the Scott who’d burned
down their base on day one. Except while that version of him was more outwardly angry, this
version just seemed sad and afraid. Angry at Tango, sure, but more so angry at himself and the
painful feelings that he couldn’t control.
Tango knew that struggle all too well. And that only made him empathize with the other even
further. He didn’t want to feel sorry for him, but it didn’t matter what he wanted, he still
understood the type of pain lying behind Scott’s reaction completely.
So he was Etho after all. He was the fucking Etho of this situation and he hated that. He didn’t
mean to make a mess. Didn’t mean to hurt someone this much. But what made the weight of his
conscious even heavier, was that even after knowing this, he knew he’d still do it all over again.
“I know.” Tango responded after a while. That statement held more truth to it then he would ever
let on about. “But what do you think’ll happen if you just quit right here?” The blaze chanced a
step forward. Thankfully, Scott didn’t continue his retreat upon seeing this. “You’re gonna wake
up in the next world, and Jimmy’s-“
“What?” Scott spat. “He’s gonna be mad that I killed you?”
“He’s gonna be dissapointed that you gave up.” Tango said, taking another step closer.
“Why should I care?” Scott asked. “He already hates me.”
“He doesn’t.”
“Like you would know that…”
Tango paused. The things he could tell this man. Good god, he had no idea.
“I do.” Tango said sternly, fully confident of the truth in that statement. “And I don’t hate you
either.” He added. “In fact, I don’t think I can do this without you.”
Scott let out a sad laugh, still choking slightly through his tears. “No shit.”
“I don’t mean it like that.” Tango shot back. “I mean that—you’re easily the best player out of all
of us.”
The other threw his head back, rolling his teary eyes. “Fucks sake-“
“It’s true!” Tango insisted. “You made it to the final battle in Third Life, kicked ass in Last Life
and won, practically tied with Pearl in Double Life—and let’s not forget you’re the only one of us
who was able to resist killing someone when you got cursed as the boogeyman.”
Tango continued slowly making his way forward, closing the distance between them one step at a
time.
“I don’t think you should stay just cause Jimmy would want you to.”
His voice had lowered at that point. Scott was close enough to hear him speak normally now.
“I think you should stay because if anyone has a shot at winning this thing, it’s you.”
There wasn’t any kind of mental debate he’d had about that. Everything Tango had said he
considered to be absolutely true. Scott was an excellent player. Maybe that hadn’t been very
apparent during the first day of this game when he’d fallen off the ravine, but it definitely was for
the rest of their time here up until now. He’d been the assertive one of the group, the one to come
up with plans and take chances. Scott was relentless, smart, and he was Tango’s best shot at seeing
this game through to the end.
He took one final step towards the other, the two of them now just an arm’s length apart. Tango
gazed at Scott sternly, but at the same time, with respect.
“You’re really that upset that they killed him?” He said, reaching an arm out to offer Scott his open
hand. “Then let’s make them pay for it—together.”
It took Scott a moment to say anything after that, the both of them just staring in silence. But at
least that wasn’t an obvious “no”. Well, an obvious no would probably be him jumping off
anyway. Instead, he just seemed to be thinking things over, unsure if anything that Tango just said
would be worth the effort of him fighting on in this world.
But in the end, it seemed like enough to him.
He saw Scott look down at his hand, sigh, and then grab it. Tango grinned, ready to pull him away
from the edge, but before he could even react he felt Scott beat him to it, yanking him forward
without letting go.
The blaze let out a small yelp at the sudden motion. Scott had wrapped his other arm around his
back, practically hugging him now while locking his body into place. Tango quickly realized that
in this position a single step backwards from the other would send the both of them plummeting.
But Scott didn’t do that. Instead, he held him even tighter, his head leaning in to speak in Tango’s
ear.
“The second I change my mind…” He whispered ominously, his unexpected threatening tone
sending shivers down Tango’s spine. “I’m leaving this game—and I’m taking you with me.”
Tango’s body stiffened. His eyes fell over Scott’s shoulder and onto the ravine, the now very
visible deepness of it making the blaze’s stomach churn. He tried to look away, which was made
easier once Scott pulled his head back, cold eyes glaring dangerously hard into his.
Tango swallowed hard. “D-deal.” He said shakily.
Scott released him almost immediately after that, shoving him forward so they were a short
distance apart once more.
Tango could only stare at him after that. Eyes wide and mouth open. He didn’t think Scott was
capable of being so genuinely frightening, let alone with tears stains still streaked along his face
after having revealed what was probably his most burning secret to him. It certainly made the blaze
feel— some, kind of way about him.
He watched as the other finally took some steps forward and away from the ravine, grabbing at the
edge of his shirt as he did to wipe some of his tears away. Tango couldn’t help but feel as though
they’d left so many things unsaid between them. Especially since now both Jimmy and Scott had
admitted to him that neither were over the other at all. The knowledge that he was now probably
the one and only person who knew that their feelings were mutual was already starting to weigh on
him—for more reasons than one.
But they’d both just admitted a lot to each other. If Tango was going to say anything else to Scott,
he figured it’d be sensible to wait. He was still yellow and Scott was still green, after all. They’d
have the whole rest of this game to sort through all the hostility between them. If that was even
possible to begin with, of course.
Tango caught up to Scott with a slow jog, matching his quick pace.
“Where are we going?” He asked patiently.
“First, we’re gonna go grab all the stuff that Jimmy dropped. Then, we’re heading back to my place
and moving all of my things.”
“Uh, why are we doing that second part?”
Scott stopped walking, now turning his head to face Tango while he talked to him. “Tango, our
team has managed to kill four different people in the span of two days.” The way he’d said that
sounded unnervingly calm. “Now I don’t know if you’re good at math, but that’s a total of six
people who are gonna be after our heads. And in case you haven’t noticed, we’re down a team
member.” He took a step forward, each word he spoke weighing more than the last. “I’m not gonna
sugarcoat things here, the odds are not looking good for us.”
Scott had a point. Tango hadn’t considered all that yet, but things did seem pretty disastrous for
them at the moment. “But what does all that have to do with us moving your stuff?”
“Easy,” Scott spoke. “I’m moving in with you.”
He started walking away again, leaving Tango to stand there and gawk as he tried to put those
pieces together, but failed.
“Hey! Hang on a second-“ Tango started running once again to catch up with him after a few
seconds. “What-? Are you saying we need to stick together all the time since we’re now on half the
server’s kill list?”
Scott nodded his head. Grian’s base was now in sight at that point. Tango felt relieved that
Jimmy’s stuff hadn’t despawned yet. “That, and I wouldn’t be surprised if one or both of our bases
got destroyed either today or within the next few days.”
Scott stepped inside to pick up some of the items, Tango went to help. “And since it was your idea
to make one specifically built for that contingency, it makes more sense for me to move to yours
instead.”
He figured that did made sense. Although it felt odd how okay Scott was with going back there.
Maybe his initial anger over the build had cooled down since that first day. If that were the case,
he wondered what might have made him start to change his mind about it to begin with.
Tango scooped up another handful of items, quickly vanishing them into his inventory. Grabbing
everything Jimmy had lost made him feel upset all over again. How could fate be so cruel? He’d
been the one trying to convince his boyfriend that the canary curse was all in his head, that he just
had bad luck, but after seeing him die three times in a row after him and Scott took too much
damage, despite the odds of him dying being split 50/50 between him and his teammates each time,
despite the fact that absolutely none of those deaths were actually caused by him this time, it still
happened. He was still the first one out again.
Tango was going to apologize to him once they saw each other again. He was right. He shouldn’t
have tried to promise him anything, because after the events of today, who wouldn’t think he was
cursed?
At least he could keep this one promise to him and keep playing the game to the best of his
abilities. Because of course he made him promise that he’d stick around and keep playing if the
other were to die early. Of course Jimmy knew that going on without him would only make the
blaze upset unless he assured him that he genuinely wanted him to. Jimmy knew him so well it was
scary, but knowing that only made his death hurt even more.
Tango grabbed the last of the items, now looking up to see where Scott was. He found the other on
a different end of the room, still picking up what appeared to be the item’s that Bigb dropped.
Tango stared at him, watching until the other went to turn around.
“What?” He spoke. “We’re probably already on his revenge list after killing him. Might as well
steal his stuff too.”
The blaze opened his mouth to respond, but could think of nothing to say to that. In fact, he found
himself chuckling slightly at the sheer audacity of the other.
“Pft- Yeah, you know what? Good point.” Tango said, grinning. He then went to help Scott,
because as the other had said, why the hell not?
He felt a little less sad after that.
They’d finished up rather quickly, the both of them then heading back out to go to Scott’s place
afterwards. Some food helped to heal both of their wounds and by now the arrows that Tango had
been shot with were starting to vanish. They walked in silence for a short while, but Tango felt as
though the figurative space between them was less weighted and more comfortable. Although
that’s not to say that he still didn’t feel uneasy after the very clear threat Scott had made to him.
Guess he’d just have to make sure not to give him a reason to change his mind.
Thoughtlessly, Tango went to pull out his comm, opening the chat to read some of the countless
messages that had likely been sent after Jimmy, Bigb, and Grian’s deaths. This was surely
something to talk about, after all.
He scrolled back up through the messages, trying to find the starting point of it all right after
Jimmy’s death message was sent, before his eyes suddenly scanned over something very alarming.
“Uh oh-“ Tango breathed, his eyes widening.
“What?” Scott asked.
“Um—you know how you said we’d managed to kill four people?” Tango leaned over to the other,
showing him his screen. “Well… make that three people, actually.”
He quickly noticed the moment Scott read the same message he’d been looking at. His reaction
was anything but calm.
Bigb had taken the brunt of both of Scar’s phantom deaths. He was a red life now.
And Grian was still green.
“WHAT??”
Chapter End Notes
Scott - Green
Jimmy - X
Tango - Yellow
Cleo - Green
Bdubs - Green
Etho - Green
Grian - Green
Scar - Yellow
Bigb - Red
Ren - Green
Martyn - Yellow
Impulse - Yellow
Pearl - Green
Joel - Green
Lizzie - Green
Your Place, or Mine?
Chapter Summary
Scott and Tango discuss Jimmy’s death and try to figure out where they’ll be spending
the night
<PearlescentMoon> WHAT IS GOING ON RIGHT NOW??
<BdoubleO100> Jimmy’s DEAD?
<BdoubleO100> ALREADY???
<Smallishbeans> This is surely a sign of the end times
<Smallishbeans> The chaos is gonna start any minute now
<Grian> Wait what
<Grian> But
<Grian> It’s only been three days!?
<LDShadowLady> Jimmy noooo!!!
<Renthedog> Major, Tango, can your group stop killing people
<Renthedog> For FIVE MINUTES???
<InTheLittleWood> Can Jimmy actually last longer than five minutes?

<GoodTimesWithScar> That’d be quite the challenge for him
<ZombieCleo> Can you guys stop being jerks?
<GoodTimesWithScar> I’m the one who got stabbed here Cleo :(
<Smallishbeans> Hang on, did Bigb die TWICE??
<bigbst4tz2> This game is bullying me
Scott was having some trouble keeping up with all the messages being sent at once. He didn’t
think he’d seen this much traffic in the chat since the game began. It was only natural, though.
Jimmy was the first to die again. That much was nothing new, but having it happen this early was
an all time low record the likes of which none of them had anticipated.
And it was his fault.
Scott had to admit, coming to terms with his emotions like this seemed to clear up his head a lot
more than he’d expected. To think that after six months all it took for him to stop lying to himself
was for Jimmy to die right in front of him.
Well, maybe it took a little more than that. Maybe it was also the time they’d spent together on this
server, the closeness they shared, the fact that they were actually talking to each other again—even
if they were more or less forced to in the beginning. All of that eventually became too much for
him. It forced him to remember what he’d lost. And then made him lose it all again.
Thoughts of what his teammate had just said to him echoed in his head.
“You’re not fooling anyone.”
As much as he hated to admit it, Tango was right. He wasn’t fooling anyone. In fact, he couldn’t
even fool the only person he really needed to: himself.
But now that he was done trying to fool himself, and now that Jimmy—his only reason for being
here—had just died, what was keeping him here now?
Pride, for one. Tango had put up a good argument. He didn’t seem destined to last very long even if
the other’s life wasn’t already tied to his health bar. The odds would be even more stacked against
him if he’d left. Maybe Scott just liked the idea of Tango being dependent on him to stay alive. He
had to admit, it was somewhat pleasant holding the life of the person he disliked so much in palm
of his hand.
But who was he kidding? That wasn’t the main reason. As long as he was continuing to be honest
with himself, he might as well acknowledge fully that he was still here simply because he didn’t
want the game to end. What Tango had said earlier resonated with him. All that was going to
happen if he were to continue throwing himself off that cliff and killing the both of them would be
that he’d wake up, have to explain himself to Jimmy, and then likely watch him leave with Tango.
Ending the game meant going back home. It meant sharing a server with someone he couldn’t stop
thinking about, but who also didn’t—and would probably never—belong to him again. Maybe
things had changed a little between them over the past three days, but surely that meant nothing in
the grand scheme of things. They’d go right back to ignoring each other as much as possible while
living their lives so close to the other physically and yet, emotionally, completely separate. And
Scott knew that outcome was inevitable, but for as long as he could help it, he’d continue to put it
off, because that was all he really had control over now.
It took up until Scott was able to feel some not so distant heat emitting onto the side of his face that
he realized he’d been peering over Tango’s shoulder for more than a few seconds by now. The
blaze had been the one to show him the death message on his comm and once Scott had gotten
invested in what was on it, well, he’d forgotten that he also had his own comm he could be looking
at.
He pulled his face away from the device that the other had been holding up, turning his head to see
Tango’s face burning bright red, hair starting to flicker into flames.
“Hey.” Scott said, snapping his fingers right in front of the blaze’s face. That seemed to get his
attention. “Don’t make me have to use the water bucket again.” He stated bluntly.
Tango stared for a moment, and then let out a small sigh, his fire visibly going down slightly.
“Sorry.” He spoke. “It’s just so annoying when they talk about him like that.” He put the comm
away. Scott figured that was for the best.
“I mean, you know him well, right?”
Only for several years, you ass.
“Yes?”
“You know that he pretends he’s fine with all the teasing, but really he hates it?”
Scott nodded. “Of course I know that.” He began walking again, leaving Tango to follow. “And
I’ve told him before that I’d be willing to talk to them about it for him, but-“
“He always tells you not to?”
“He always tells me not to!”
Scott had surprised himself with the quick response. Not only that, but he’d just begun to realize
how emotionally intimate Tango must have gotten with his ex. How many things did he know
about Jimmy? Did he tell him everything he’d told Scott while they were together? Was it possible
that Tango knew some things that he didn’t??
He was overthinking this. He should stop. God knows his poor mind wouldn’t be able to handle
much more stress today.
“Hey, how did you know about the water bucket trick, by the way?” Tango asked.
Scott shrugged. “I don’t know.” He said. “Lucky guess?”
It did seem like the obvious answer to him. Water-on-fire-make-fire-go-out and all that.
“I’m just—surprised it worked.”
“What?” Scott raised an eyebrow at that. “You never thought to try getting yourself wet as a way
of cooling down?”
“No! I have!” Tango argued while rolling his eyes, seeming surprised that Scott would think him
that stupid. “And I know it works—at first. It’s just, sometimes, it doesn’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean like it only works if you do it right away. Wait too long, at a time when I too mad, and the
fire gets so hot that the water’ll just evaporate before it hits anything.”
Scott’s eyes went wide. “That’s insane.”
“Yeah. I hate it.” Tango agreed.
There was some silence in between them for a short while. They continued walking. Some part of
Scott wanted to go back to looking at his own comm, but another, for some reason, hoped that
Tango might keep talking. About his fire, about Jimmy. It seemed so odd how similar his abilities
were to his own. Although, he still seemed to have very little control over his. Not that it was
entirely Tango’s own fault. Scott could clearly tell from what happened between him and Scar
earlier that when Tango was angry, it wasn’t always him who was behind the wheel.
“Jimmy was the only person who could calm me down without it.”
Scott nearly flinched at the mention of Jimmy’s name again before slowly taking in what the other
had said.
“Really?” He replied, turning his head back to Tango.
“Uh huh.” Tango continued. “Didn’t even know that was a possibility before he came along. Not
sure he knew it either, but that sure didn’t stop him from trying.”
Scott turned back, eyes trailing across the ground. “Huh…” He breathed. “That’s—interesting…”
It wasn’t much longer before Scott saw the cabin he’d made just up ahead. Thankfully, still in one
piece.
He opened the door and stepped inside, immediately moving towards the first chest he saw and
grabbing everything out of it. There wasn’t much room left in his inventory to hold everything.
“Think we’ll have to make more than one trip.” He said, vanishing all of the items in his arms
before going to grab some more. “I’d say maybe three should do it.”
He heard the other groan, but ultimately, comply as he went to go help him. Together, the both of
them were able to carry a single chest worth of things. Mostly iron and food, though Scott figured
they could leave all the wood he had for now.
With that, they made their way back across the map to their first base. About halfway back and the
both of them were already talking about Jimmy again, comms long abandoned in favor of actually
conversing.
“Do you think Jimmy’s watching us right now?” Tango questioned.
“Like, as a ghost?” Scott asked back. “No.”
Tango noticeably perked up at the quick response. “Wow, you seem so certain.”
“Well I’ve known him for longer.” Scott stated before quickly regretting what he’d said. He felt
kind of awkward now, as did Tango, seemingly.
“I just mean—I know how he copes with things, y’know?” Scott rephrased. “And after something
like this, after dying so early for the fourth time in a row, the only thing that I think Jimmy would
want to do is curl up into the void and not feel anything until he has to. Until the endgame
sequence wakes him up again.”
He heard Tango hum. “That… is a pretty good point.” He said sadly, turning to him. “Do you
usually go to the void right after?”
“Don’t have to.” Scott grinned. “I usually make it so close to the very end that it doesn’t matter
anyway.”
Tango let out a small laugh. “ Heh, right. Forgot about that.”
“You forgot it?” Scott said, grinning even wider. “Didn’t you just give me an entire speech about
how skilled of a player I am?”
“Oh my god…” Tango put a hand over his mouth. Scott couldn’t quite tell if he was smiling or
frowning, but something he hadn’t managed to hide was the visible blush creeping up his face.
“What was it you said?” He went on, decidedly enjoying the teasing. “That I’m easily the best
player here?”
Tango actually laughed again at that, appearing to have given up completely on hiding his
embarrassment. As he shoved his hands in his pockets, Scott could now see that he held a bright
grin, his flushed cheeks only adding emotion to his expression.
“Yeah.” He smirked, his next statement catching Scott completely off guard. “And I meant it.”
Scott—hesitated in his response. He hadn’t fully taken Tango for his word on that. Even the first
time he’d said it, he took it with a grain of salt. This guy was calling him clumsy two days ago, did
Tango really expect him to believe him when he’d said something like that?
Even so, he had sounded so sincere that time. And he sounded sincere now. It was unusual to Scott,
but not unwelcome.
“…Well you’re lucky I’m easy to flatter.” He finally decided on saying. Part of that was the truth,
anyway.
The moment of peace ended as soon as it started. They had been close to the mountain biome by
now, and Scott could smell gunpowder off in the distance.
“Uh oh.” He heard Tango utter, taking the words right out of his mouth.
They both started running. After a short while, they broke through the trees and into the clearing
they’d made for the house—which, as Scott could see, was now hardly even recognizable. The
entire front of the decoy base had been blown wide open, wood and stone scattered everywhere
inside of the crater that was now where the stairs and porch used to be.
On some level, Scott was glad it was gone. But mainly, he just wanted to kill the person who’d
likely just made his day a hundred times more difficult.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Scott spoke, mouth hanging open as he looked over the wreckage.
“I- I knew someone might go after us, but I didn’t think it’d happen this quickly!”
He turned his head to Tango, who he noticed had been oddly quiet about all this. Scott felt a tinge
of panic in that moment. Was he sad? Angry? Two seconds from bursting into flames all over
again?? Scott hadn’t bothered to refill his bucket with water yet. Oh boy, this could get ugly.
But Tango didn’t seem to be portraying any of those emotions. In fact, he just seemed shocked like
Scott had. Maybe even—surprised?
“It worked.”
Scott continued moving his eyes between him and the destroyed base, confusion only growing.
“Uh, hello??”
Then, Tango did something he hadn’t expected.
He smiled.
“The decoy base we made—it worked!” He started moving forward, working his way past the
damaged front and up towards the sturdy planks he’d put in place to hide their secret hallway
leading to the interior base. “None of the stuff inside the mountain got damaged. They didn’t
destroy it because they didn’t even know it was there!!”
Scott continued gawking, still incredibly surprised at the other’s optimism. He watched as Tango
tore down part of the planks, indeed revealing a perfectly normal looking hallway and an even
more normal looking bedroom and storage room shortly past it.
“But- but the decoy still got blown up!” Scott tried to restate. Tango only looked back at him,
confused.
“Well yeah.” He replied. “That’s what it was built for.”
They both stared at each other stiffly for a moment. Scott looked back to the undamaged room that
held all the important chests. Then he looked back at Tango, who was now raising an eyebrow at
him.
“I…” Scott paused. He wasn’t sure what else to say. Tango was right. It had served its purpose.
Any ores, food, or armor remained unharmed, and there was still a base left standing.”
Scott ran a hand over his face and eventually opened his mouth again. “Okay.” He sighed, giving
in and letting a tired laugh out while he was at it.
“You’re right.” He began working his way up to Tango, stepping over the messy rubble until he’d
made it to the the hallway entrance. “It was built for that and it’s good that all of the important
stuff you kept in the interior base weren’t destroyed.”
Who was he to get mad over someone being optimistic? This had been Tango’s idea, after all. If
anything, it’d make more sense to praise him for it. But of course, he wasn’t about to start doing
that.
“All that aside though, where are we suppose to stay now?” Scott continued tailing behind Tango
as he went to walk ahead down the hall.
“Well, you said it yourself.” He replied, the both of them stepping into the secret room. “The
interior survived this just fine-“
Tango stopped talking mid sentence and froze. Scott continued looking at him, but all he seemed to
be capable of doing in that moment was standing perfectly still as he stared into the cozy-looking
bedroom. Scott moved to stand beside him, turning just enough to see his once optimistic smile
begin to fade from his face.
His eyes darted to where Tango was looking. There was just a single bed in the center of the room.
Easily big enough for two people, and yet empty all the same.
Scott quickly realized where all of the sudden tension was coming from.
“…You know what?” He said, breaking the silence. “I don’t think it really matters.”
He saw Tango snap out of whatever trance he was in to look at him, face fixed with a questioning
look.
“There’s like, only one room there, and I didn’t want to move all that stuff from my base anyway.”
Scott continued.
Slowly, Tango seemed to find his voice again, nodding his head hazily before replying. “It’s pretty
late in the day too. People might get suspicious if they see us trying to rebuild the- uh, decoy,
y’know?”
“Especially when there’s a perfectly good base that I built already.” Scott nodded back, trying to
sound practical.
“Exactly.” Tango finished.
They both continued standing by the entrance awkwardly for a moment. Scott was the first to take
a step back.
“Let’s uh- let’s just head back there then, yeah?” He offered, motioning Tango to join him.
“Right.” Tango said, seeming to follow him mindlessly.

And that was the end of it.
It was fairly easy for Scott to have deduced by now that conversation between him and Tango was
either a hit or a miss when it came around to the subject of Jimmy. For obvious reasons, of course,
he was still a very sensitive topic. Although it at least seemed as though they’d adressed the
elephant in the room—that is, Scott’s lingering feelings. As much as he despised that, his shoulders
did feel all the lighter for it. While that still didn’t make talking about Jimmy the easiest thing in
the world—what else were they suppose to talk about? It’s not as though they had much else in
common other than some kind of attraction for him.
They’d reached his cabin once more after that short, but still pointless detour to the mountain base.
The funny thing was that now, that they’d have to move all of their stuff from the first base to the
second one instead of vise-versa.
Scott wondered that entire time if this base was about to get blown up as well, but he figured that
having that done for a second time would just be beating a dead horse. Whichever group or
individual did this, they’d gotten their revenge. Surely no one would try to pull the same trick in
the same day with this build. That’d just be demonstrating actual genuine anger, and no one has
ever really gotten angry at another player for killing them before. They all knew this was a game,
and genuine agression would just be seen by the rest of the group as an overreaction.
Over a person’s death, that is. There were more than enough valid reasons for people to get mad at
each other after the previous game.
Tango had told Scott that he’d be making a few trips back and forth to grab some of the more
important resources from the other base and bring them here. Scott hadn’t thought anything of it,
but he did insist that he stay at the cabin for the time being. As unlikely as it would be, he still felt
as though he’d be more at ease if at least one of the two of them were there keeping watch over the
place.
And so, that was the rest of their afternoon. The sun had already been setting at the time they’d
attacked Scar and Bigb, and now it was almost past dusk. He knew Tango would be back any
minute now, this trip most likely being his last.
Scott reached into one of the chests that Tango had filled and pulled out some bread, moving to sit
on the crate as he reached for his comm to read some of the many panicked messages that were
sent earlier that day while he ate. He had to admit, he was pretty glad that everything Tango and
Jimmy had stored away had survived. At least they wouldn’t have to worry about finding food or
making tools for a while. Assuming they survived long enough for that to become a problem.
<Pearlescentmoon> Tango? Scott?
<Pearlescentmoon> You guys okay?
<Pearlescentmoon> I’m so sorry
That last line made Scott’s chest ache. Despite the fact that saying it out loud over chat would
incriminate her, he knew what Pearl was really apologizing for. She felt it was her fault that Jimmy
had died since she was the one who sent their team after Scar. But she was wrong. They were the
ones who went in ill prepared, who took the risk. Pearl simply gave them incentive for something
that they were likely going to try to do anyway. And he wanted to let her know that, to tell her that
all over chat. But, of course, that would spill to everyone that she was the one who sent them after
Grian’s team. And being a team full of greens, there was already enough of a bounty on her head.
<Tango> It’s okay Pearl
Well, Tango already seemed to have come to that same conclusion. His message to her was sent
about half an hour ago. Scott figured he’d add to it.
<Smajor1995> We’ll talk later
It’d be fine. He’d tell her all that tomorrow.
Tango came in through the door shortly after, walking himself across the room and towards an
empty chest which he just barely managed not to fill up completely.
“Think that’s the last of it.” He said, clapping his hands. “Man, I wish shulkers were available
here.”
Scott looked out the window. He managed to catch one final glimpse of light just as the sun
finished setting completely and the stars started coming out. He had a feeling it was going to be a
long night for him, as it had been for the last few days.
“That’s good.” He nodded, finishing his bread and putting his comm away. Scott walked over to
another one of the chests and opened it, grabbing at various pieces of armor and storing them away.
Just as he’d finished and closed the chest, he felt Tango’s warm presence behind him.
“Uh, what are you doing?” He asked.
“I was just going to head out.” Scott replied, turning around. He tried his best to ignore the other
and walk right past him, but the blaze had stepped to the side and was now blocking his path.
“At night? To do what??”
That—was a good question. Something? Anything, he supposed. The thoughts and feelings he’d
been repressing may have now succeeded in making their way to the front of his mind and burying
themselves permanently in there, but that didn’t mean that sleeping was going to be any easier for
him now. If anything, it’d only give him more to think about, and Scott did not want that, no he
didn’t.
“…Uh-“ He stood there, staring back at Tango, ultimately finding himself unable to conjure up an
actual answer. Although he figured that anything he did manage to come up with would be quickly
shot down by the other regardless.
“Yeah, we’re not gonna be doing that.” Tango replied, just as he’d predicted.
Scott made a face, trying to display an at least somewhat assertive attitude. “Why not?”
Tango sighed. “As nice as it would be to not have to spend all of my time around you, I also know I
can’t take my eyes off you during the night.”
Scott blinked. “What?” He then realized what the other was getting at. “You actually think I’m
gonna go running off a ledge again?” He scoffed. “Tango, if I was going to kill you by now-“
“That’s not what I’m talking about.” Tango cut him off. “I know you’re gonna go sneak out and
exhaust yourself all over again for no reason.”
Scott glared at him. “And what about it?”
“Scott- you need to sleep!” Tango said, stepping forward. “My lifeline is yours now and you’d be
risking my life by going out at night and doing—whatever the heck it is you do.”
“I’m sorry.” Scott said darkly. “I think you’ve forgotten who’s calling the shots here.”
He took a step forward, glaring daggers at the other and straightening up his body as a means of
intimidation. “I could kill us both any time I want to, remember?”
He saw Tango flinch for a second, before composing himself and rolling his eyes. “And that threat
only means anything to me if you’re actually trying not to die in the first place.” He paused,
sighing. “C’mon dude, you’re actively taking bits of damage just from exhaustion. How’s working
yourself to death any less reckless than jumping off a cliff?”
He had a point. What good was that threat if he wasn’t giving any care to his health at all? Still, it’s
not as though he wasn’t capable of taking care of himself. He’d done this exact same thing the
night before and ended up fine, if a bit beaten.
And ill.
And exhausted.
Well, he was already on the fence about going out tonight anyway. Maybe sticking around Tango
wouldn’t be the end of the world.
Scott relaxed his posture, groaning. “So—what?” He started. “I didn’t put up any walls in this
place. Are you just gonna stare at me like a creep until I fall asleep?”
“I don’t know?” Tango shrugged. “My sleep cycle’s pretty off too, so I’ll probably just be around,
doing my own thing.”
“Oh my god…” Scott ran a hand over his face. This was ridiculous.
“Hey, this is on you man.” Tango stated, throwing his hands up. “Seriously though,” He continued.
“just get one good nights sleep and I promise I’ll lay off you for like, at least the next two nights.”
Scott glared at him, only then noticing how concerned the blaze looked. His brows were furrowed
and his words had that tone of sincerity to them again. All things considered, Tango seemed like he
wasn’t going to budge on this very easily.
Scott weighed his options: stay in the nice, warm house, or go off and do whatever. Maybe he’d go
mining this time? That seemed like a bad idea, but what was Tango going to do about it? He could
wander off, collapse from exhaustion and fall asleep in a ditch somewhere and no one could do
anything about it.
Would that actually be what would happen though? It had been three days. He’d gotten some on-
and-off sleep, sure, but what would happen tomorrow? What would carrying the weight of three
restless nights feel like? Would he even be able to function? Think clearly? Remember things?
Come to think of it, he could hardly even remember what they’d been doing for hours back at
Grian’s base. Although he did remember feeling at ease. Relieved. About— something.
It took a second before Scott finally caved, deciding that the first option was far more favorable in
terms of getting him farther along in the game. Defeatedly, he turned around to walk back to the
chest and put his things away.
“You’d better keep that promise.” He spoke, taking off his overshirt and throwing it on top of the
chest. “Assuming we make it more than two days, of course.”
“We will.” Tango spoke back.
“And where did that kind of hollow optimism get Jimmy?” The words came out of his mouth
before he could comprehend what they meant. There was no bite to them, simply a cold question
that hung in the air for much longer than Scott was comfortable with.
He turned around, seeing the look Tango was giving him. Some parts shocked, but mostly just hurt.
Scott bit his lip, trying to think his next words over clearly this time. “I’m not saying it’s your fault.
I- I just-“
“No, it is…” Tango calmly insisted. Scott saw him rub a shoulder, awkwardly looking to the
ground. the tension in the air had grown thick again. Now, the blaze just looked sad.
“Yeah, well, I’m the one who fell into the stupid ravine. Remember?” Scott said admittedly as he
took a step forward. “You tried. We both did. And I know how badly you wanted him to make it.”
Tango let out a deep sigh, slowly lifting his head up to make eye contact once more. He too seemed
unsure of what to say.
“Y’know—the second time Jimmy died, after you fell, I almost went to set your house on fire.”
He—honestly, hadn’t expected the other to say that of all things. Scott actually found himself able
to laugh at it a bit.
“ Pfft- wait, actually?”
“Heh, yeah.” Tango smiled. “Jimmy got me to calm down though. Told me it wasn’t your fault and
I- I get that. I know you never meant to- do anything. I just wasn’t thinking straight.”
He paused, shuffling awkwardly again. “Just—in case you still thought he hated you. That’s- that’s
at least something, right?”
Oh. Right.
That.
Scott swallowed. Just like that, he wanted to run away again. Out of everyone who could have seen
him like that, did it really have to be Tango? Did fate just hate him that much?
He didn’t think Jimmy hated him. Well, actually, he didn’t know what to think. Maybe Jimmy
hated him like he hated Tango, not minding him so much as an individual, but still unable to accept
his presence in a positive light due to how much the other’s actions had hurt him. Maybe Jimmy
had blown this whole thing wide open ages ago and already knew everything. How Scott felt, the
cause of his restlessness. Did knowing that make him think he was obsessive? Pathetic? It had
been six months since he broke up with him. That’s quite a long time to be sulking for. Hell, he
would’ve probably been right about all of those assumptions if that were the case.
It was all so much to think about. But lucky for him, Tango had given him enough reason to stay
inside, so he’d have all night to think over all of this, whether he wanted to or not.
Scott didn’t exactly reply to Tango after that. He just stood in silence as he tried not to think too
hard about everything.
“I’m gonna go to bed.” He said eventually, the quietness in his voice surprising even himself.
“Oh.” Tango spoke. “Oh- okay, yeah.”
Scott paid no attention to his surprised tone. He tried not to look at Tango as he walked ahead, the
other finally having decided to let him pass through.
Scott turned a corner, moving to sit down on the bed that he’d made but rarely used. Tango hadn’t
made any moves to follow him. Though Scott figured that if he really was planning on staying up,
he’d at least try to be quiet.
After kicking off his shoes, Scott finally rested his head on his pillow, and though he knew it’d be
pointless, he closed his eyes as well. Either this would work, or it was going to be a long night for
the both of them.
Unexpectedly, he heard a soft word from across the room.
“Goodnight…”
He kept his eyes closed.

Up All Night
Chapter Summary
Scott hears an explosion go off near the cabin. He feels paranoid and stays awake all
night, talking to Tango about anything and everything
Chapter Notes
It wasn’t, in fact, a good night. Actually, Scott didn’t think he could remember the last time he’d
had a good night if he’d tried. Although, if he had to guess, it was probably sometime before
Double Life began.
Scott groaned, flipping over on to his other side. Yep. Just as he’d expected. This wasn’t any more
comfortable than the other. He squinted his eyes open slightly and was met with a cold solid wall.
Great. He rolled onto his back, throwing an arm over his forehead. How long had it been? One
hour? Two? Certainly not long enough for the sun to start rising yet. But oh god, what if it was?
What if he’d have to get up soon after having not gotten any sleep at all? This would have just been
a big waste of time if that were the case.
But what did it matter? He was already wasting time just by being here, was only putting off the
inevitable. Even if he managed to be the last player standing, he’d have to leave this game
eventually. He hated how many things Tango had been right about so far, and having the blaze call
out his self-destructive behavior only added to that list. How much longer could he do this for?
Would another handful of months finally rid him of these feelings? Or would he just be forced to
accept things as they were? To just learn to live with this constant feeling that something was
missing? Fuck, he wished he could just turn his thoughts off like a switch. Maybe then he’d finally
have some peace and quiet-
BOOM!
Scott’s eyes shot open as he jolted upwards. He felt the ground shake under him for a quick second,
and then just like that, everything went back to being silent.
Throwing the blanket off him, he leaned over and stood up, walking back around the corner to find
Tango.
He quickly heard the other shuffling about and turned the corner to see him sitting up just as he
had. He noticed the blaze had placed down a bed of his own, and had by now, taken off his vest
and the sweater that was under it. He seemed just as surprised as Scott was. Good. That at least
told him that he wasn’t the one to cause the explosion. He would have strangled the other if that
were the case.
“What happened?” Scott asked, yawning tiredly.
“Don’t know.” Tango replied. Scott noticed he had a direct view of the window from where he was
sitting.
“Looks like it was just a creeper? I heard the hiss and saw it right before it exploded. Wasn’t
triggered close enough to the base to destroy anything, so that’s good.”
“A creeper?” Scott shuffled forward, leaning to look out the same window. All he saw was a small
crater and some remnants of smoke coming out of it. Although the darkness did make it somewhat
hard to make out the details.
“Well, it had to have been agro’d on someone, wouldn’t it?” He concluded.
Tango shrugged, as if the answer to that weren’t obvious. Scott watched as he moved to stand up.
“I can go check if you wa-“
“No!” Scott quickly said. He put a hand up, gesturing for the other to stay put. “Just—stay here,
okay?” He finished, trying to play down the spur of emotion he just displayed. He knew it would
be safer for him if he volunteered. That way, if someone was trying to sneak up on them or lure
him into a trap, it wouldn’t be his life he’d be putting at risk. He had to say, now that it was just the
two of them, these rules seemed to work a lot more in his favor. He just had to make sure that
Tango wasn’t being equally reckless, which he was sure he could manage.
Scott slipped his shoes back on, moved towards the door, and stepped out. Cautiously, he circled
the cabin, keeping his ears open for noises. But even as he was making his way back around, all he
could hear was dead silence. Not even the moans of zombies made themselves present.
Scott sighed, stepping back inside and closing the front door. “Looks like whoever it was is gone
now.”
“Great.” Tango smiled cheekily. “Now, Go. Back. To. Bed .”
“Uh, excuse you.” The audacity. Why did Tango keep thinking he could just tell him to do
whatever?
Scott’s feeling of offense had clearly reflected itself on his face, as Tango seemed to have gotten
the message.
He let out a sigh. “Please?” Tango asked, in a much more pleading tone.
Good grief. Now he just sounded like a parent.
“Well, now you’ve just made it even weirder.” Scott said, deadpanned.
He noticed the corners of Tango’s mouth start to curve upward before he shoved an entire hand
over his face in a futile attempt to hold back laughter.
“Oh my god-“ Scott said, putting his head in his hands. Admittedly, he was trying to hide his own
dumb grin as well.
“Just—shush! For a second, alright?” He finally urged, getting Tango to relax a little. “Either
someone was just doing a really bad job of spying on us, or they were probably trying to kill us.”
“Uh, yeah? And they blew their cover. So it’s all good now.”
“No, it’s not!” Scott insisted. What if they come back? What if it was more than one person? It had
probably been a good couple of hours since their first base got blown up. If there was anyone who
was waiting on an acceptable time to make some other kind of move on them, then now would be
the time to do it.
“You know, it’s probably the same person who blew up our base.” Scott walked over to one of
their chests, opening it up and grabbing a piece of paper a feather, and some ink. Sleep could wait.
He had some new priorities now.
“Maybe, but that could be a number of people.” Tango responded, still lounging on the bed.
Scott walked over to him to use the crafting table on his left. Seamlessly, he threw both the feather
and ink sac over it and manifested a pen within seconds.
“Scott? What are you doing?” He heard Tango ask. He sounded concerned, but Scott didn’t care.
“I’m making a list of least to most likely people who’d want us dead.”
He saw the blaze throw his head back, rolling his eyes. “Oh for the love of-“ He was standing back
up now, his arms crossed in what was clearly frustration. “Could you just go back to bed??”
“But what if they show up again?”
“Then I’ll fight them.” Tango said, holding up his arm to flex it. Scott was not amused. “I mean,
what else is there to do?”
“Then the noise will just wake me up again and we’ll have accomplished nothing.”
“You’re just using this as an excuse to do anything other than sleep!”
Was he? Not entirely. He had been having trouble recalling things lately. Remembering who was
on which team and who they’d managed to piss off in the past three days was certainly one of the
reoccurring struggles. Of course, the only reason he was having trouble keeping his head straight
in the first place was because he wasn’t sleeping. But this was important too. What if this night just
went on the same as it had been since he’d first laid down? What if he never fell asleep at all and
now he’d just have no sleep and no list of players to help him keep track of people—which he
would then probably be forgetting to make all over again!
No, this was important. He needed to do this now. Even if it took all night.
“Oh my god…” He saw Tango pinching the bridge of his nose, groaning. “You’re just—so far out
of it right now and you don’t even know it.”
Scott had no idea what he was talking about. He simply stayed silent, pacing around the room.
“If I help you with this, will your nerves be calm enough for you to sleep?”
Scott looked back up at him, shrugging. “It’d certainly make things easier.”
There was a short pause.
“ Fine .” Tango said defeatedly, now moving to grab his own piece of paper. “Where to start…”
They’d managed to work out the six people who’d be after them for obvious reasons. Although it
was Scott’s idea to add Pearl to that list in the beginning. She was unlikely, but he wouldn’t have
put it past her to be so calculative as to place a bet against their team for this game and then cut a
deal with Grian’s team to take them down. She was a very scheming person when she wanted to
be. Although, Tango was quick to knock some sense into him and convince him that it was the
tiredness that was making him this paranoid. He was probably right about that, actually.
From there, it was just a matter of narrowing people down.
“I don’t think Impulse did this.” Tango said as he flopped back down on to his bed.
“Really?” Scott asked, still pacing around.
“Yeah, he’s not the agressive type. If he were looking to get genuine revenge on someone, he’d go
for more of a personal or psychologically damaging move. Plus I don’t think he would have taken
any risks on getting caught if he didn’t know where we were at the time and how long we were
going to be gone for.”
Scott raised an eyebrow. “I’m just gonna—ignore that first part…” He scribbled out Impulse’s
name on the list and proceeded to write it farther down. “What about Scar then?”
“He would have had to move fast, that’s for sure. And he ’s also more the type to set things on
fire.”
“I’ll put him down as a ‘maybe’ for now…”
Time ticked on. As was before, Scott had no idea how much time had passed since he’d first tried
to fall asleep, but he knew by now that it must have been pretty late into the night. Past midnight,
at least.
“It has to be Grian or Scar then.” Scott said, now sitting on the bed with Tango and peering over
his shoulder at the almost completed list they’d made together.
“We haven’t seen Grian since day one.” Tango countered.
“Exactly. He could have been anywhere at the time and we wouldn’t have know.”
He saw Tango’s eyes move up, considering the idea. “Well, tnt is kind of his thing.”
“Definitely.” Scott agreed. “I mean, I would’ve figured someone would try to just burn the place
down instead, right? Certainly would have been a lot easier.”
Tango quietly let out a laugh as he wrote down something else. “You would know that, wouldn’t
you?”
Scott froze, and not a moment later, Tango’s eyes widened, his scribbling hand stopping exactly
where it was.
It had been a mindless comment. One not meant to antagonize him in the slightest. Scott knew this.
And yet, it had slipped out all the same.
Scott wondered if he should say something, or if he should wait for Tango to, or if he was simply
making a bigger deal out of this than it needed to be and the other had already moved on to
something else entirely in his mind.
“Jeez—“ Tango blurted out, much more loud and awkwardly this time. “it’s like you’re trying to
steal my brand!” He laughed again, although this one sounded more forced.
Scott simply nodded along. He got the message. Tango would drop it if he did as well.
“Uh- heh, yeah.” Scott went along. I guess that’s more your thing, isn’t it?”
They didn’t bring up fire for a while after that.
What time was it now? Actually, he didn’t think he cared much anymore. The night was already
shot; it didn’t matter what they did now. Might as well embrace that fact.
“…You know what would be really wild?” Tango said, his head now leisurely dangling upside
down off the side of the bed.
“What?”
“If Bigb did this.”
Scott tapped his pen to his chin, considering it. “You’re right, I can’t see it happening.”
He heard Tango shuffle around before speaking again. “I was thinking about what we heard him
and Scar talking about earlier today.” He said. “Guess we were wrong about him being the one to
cause Bigb’s first phantom death. Seems like they really don’t hate each other.”
“Yeah.” Scott muttered. “I guess Bigb really did just—fall. There’s been so much killing going on,
I forgot that accidents like that were still completely in the realm of possibility.”
“Kinda feel bad that we got him twice though.” Tango said as he rolled over to sit back up, his face
looking a little redder than before. Scott smirked slightly as he watched. He looked ridiculous.
“Yeah, he was, like, the second one out last time too.” He replied.
“He could still last for a while. You never know.” Tango said somewhat optimistically.
“Oh really?” Scott jested. He was about to go back to looking at his paper, before something
clicked in his head. “Wait- did you-?” He began, turning back around to look at Tango. “Did you
place a bet on him before the game started??”
The other stared for a second, then, lowered his head defeatedly. “Look at you, reading me like a
book.” He got off the bed entirely now, letting his back slide downward against the bed frame until
he eased into a sitting position right next to Scott. “I was predicting he’d at least make it past fifth
place. Nothing fancy.”
“You wanna tell me who took you up on that offer?”
“Nope.”
Scott rolled his eyes. Although it did make some sense as to why no one wanted to reveal the
people they’d made deals with. At least not before the end of the game.
But then something else dawned on him. If Tango had bet on Bigb dying later in the game, then
why was he alright with going after someone on his team and potentially killing him sooner?
Because from the looks of it, they’d certainly sped things up a bit by throwing him onto red,
whether they intended to or not.
It wasn’t exactly a burning question. In fact, he was already fairly sure that he knew the answer to
it. But he still figured he’d try to get some kind of confirmation.
“Did Jimmy know?” Scott asked, patiently.
Tango gave him a puzzled look, before quickly mellowing out. He seemed to realize what Scott
was asking.
Hesitantly, he shook his head. “ No.”
“…Why didn’t you tell him?”
Tango shrugged, smiling warmly. “What good would it have done anyone if I’d of told him?” He
said. “On the slim chance he’d asked about it, sure, I would have been honest with him. But Jimmy
needed to kill someone and I was ready to do anything to help him get through this game. What’s it
to me if all it ends up costing me is a few favors to Bdubs?”
Scott stared at him, bewildered. There was some sense in that whole idea. A few favors really
wouldn’t be much to ask of Tango. But something about that confession still lingered in Scott’s
head. Tango—really did care about Jimmy. At least, to some reach. It was clear from the
beginning that he’d been interested in him, but now Scott had at least one example to his
knowledge of the blaze doing something for him and expecting absolutely nothing in return. Not
even any recognition from the other for giving something up, seeing as he had every opportunity to
bring his bet up with Jimmy while they were in the attic but didn’t.
Scott didn’t feel any kind of dramatic overturn over this small revelation. He still had bitter
feelings towards the other, that would probably never go away. But now he knew. Now he had
some sliver of proof that Tango hadn’t held on to Jimmy after Double Life out of pure selfishness.
He really did have some kind of tangible attachment towards him. And if that were the case, then
maybe he really would have been willing to sacrifice some things just to stick with him. If not back
then, then at least now.
His feelings towards Tango were still incredibly rough, but he would admit that maybe he judged
the other’s intentions much harsher than he should have in the beginning.
Scott blinked slowly, bringing his thoughts back down to earth. “Hang on-“ He started. “Did you
just say you owed Bdubs a few favors?”
“Uh, yea-“ Tango stopped talking mid sentence, eyes widening. “Shoot.” He hissed. “I just told
you who I made a deal with, didn’t I?”
“Yep.”
He paused. Then, they both started grinning. It was oddly familiar by now, the sound of Tango’s
held-back laughter. Scott figured that familiarity was only natural after having hung around him for
this long. Strangely, he didn’t seem to find it as obnoxious as he did a few hours ago.
Without even noticing right away, everything they talked about from then on had practically
nothing to do with the creeper explosion or narrowing down the list of suspects of who blew up
their base. Scott wondered if Tango had forgotten about his initial purpose in this conversation: to
get him to calm down so he could go back to trying to sleep. Maybe he did. Or maybe, he just
needed someone to talk to. Who’s to say for sure? All Scott knew was that as long as he kept the
conversation going, Tango wouldn’t try to make him go back to sleep again. Yep, that was the only
reason he continued to talk to him for hours into the night.
—And maybe also because he actually found himself enjoying taking to Tango. But that was more
of a bonus in this case.
It was late. So, so late. At this point, they’d both moved on to Tango’s bed. Scott couldn’t recall
when they’d moved there or if he’d even asked Tango if he could sit on it, but he figured it didn’t
matter. If the blaze wanted him gone he could have told him so, but he didn’t.
Looking back on his personal experiences, Scott had found that being productive in some way, or
simply just exerting himself physically always made for a decent distraction. But in this case, the
physical action was leaning his back and shoulders leisurely against a wall while sitting on comfy
pillows and blankets, and the productiveness wasn’t even there at all,
—and the distraction was Tango.
Scott had come to learn that Tango made a pretty good distraction. Everything he talked about,
Scott found himself either relating to or just being intrigued by. He’d never really noticed until
today how similar their elemental abilities were, how often they’d both get pranked or stolen from
by their respective friend groups, how they both loved giving attention to detail in their builds, or
even how they both liked warm drinks and the color light-blue (much to Scott’s surprise). But even
talking about anything he wanted to still wasn’t a full-proof way to keep Scott from nodding off.
Especially after practically three full days without sleep.
Currently, he had the side of his head rested against the wall; Tango’s words came off as hazy to
him, but still comprehensible. Although in one instance, Scott thought he’d been insulted.
“What did you just say to me?” He asked tiredly, slowly shifting his body to sit up straight.
“I said,” Tango repeated. “that you look like how Mumbo and Grian did after they started that
moon cult.”
It took Scott a second to process the words, but when he did, he cracked a smile.
“Oh yeah.” He said, giggling slightly to himself. The loopy-ness was starting to get to him again.
He remembered it had made itself apparent back in the attic, but he wasn’t quite sure what he’d
done or said at the time. Although forgetting things was another one of the many side-effects, of
insomnia, of course.
“I’m surprised you’re laughing, actually.” Tango stated.
“What?” Scott grinned. “Did you think I was gonna disagree? Cause you’re not wrong.”
“I-“ Tango paused, shaking his head before grinning right back. “Never mind.”
Scott settled down a bit, humming to himself. “So, what happened with that whole moon situation
anyway? I heard you guys were trying to beat this simulation game you’d created. Did you
succeed?”
“Oh god…” Tango crossed his arms, leaning farther back against the wall. “That is a very simple
question with a very long and complicated answer.”
Scott quirked a brow, leaning back with him. “Try me.”
Things were quiet after a while. It didn’t take a genius to tell that both of them were tired now.
Scott still had no idea how long it had been, but despite this, he found himself not caring so much
about that anymore. They were still keeping each other company, although now it was less in a
talkative way and more just through proximity. Tango hadn’t asked him to get off his bed. Scott
never offered to do so.
He’d been scrolling through his comm in that moment. No new messages had been sent, which
made sense given the hour, but it was still entertaining to go back and read some things every now
and again.
Scott put the device back down eventually, yawning and turning his head around to Tango. He still
had his back leaned up against the wall that the long side of the bed was lined up to, his arms
folded and eyelids now apparently resting. Scott watched the slow rise and fall of his chest and
found himself staring. He looked relaxed. Scott didn’t want wake him up, but then, he wasn’t even
entirely sure if he was asleep to begin with.
“Hey.” Scott whispered. “Are you still awake?”
He saw the other stir slightly, his eyes remaining shut.
“... mmhm. ”
Well, that was a surprise. It seemed as though his bad habits were rubbing off on the other. But
still, he had to wonder.
“Why?”
“Told you,” Tango mumbled. “M’not sleeping until you sleep…”
All of a sudden, Scott’s body tensed up. “I-“ His words caught in his throat. “Shit…” He
whispered, turning away whist anxiously putting a hand over his mouth.
Why had Tango said that to him? Why’d he have to go and phrase it like that??
He was thinking about him again. About Jimmy and what he’d said to him at the beach about
faking his sleep. God, it was almost comedic how his ex’s current partner was now doing the same
thing for him. This whole thing was ridiculous.
Scott moved his hand back down and proceeded to wrap his arms around himself, letting out a
shaky sigh. It was then that Tango blinked open his eyes, now looking at him concerned.
“You okay?”
He didn’t answer right away. They’d been talking all night, but right now, he could think of no
correct response to that question.
“Hey,” Tango spoke calmly, scooting himself just the slightest bit closer. “did I say something-?”
“No.” Scott quickly responded, having found his voice again. “No you—it’s fine. I’m fine.”
Tango didn’t seem convinced. Scott supposed that didn’t matter though. What possible way would
he have of knowing what he was getting anxious over? It could have been anything for all he
knew.
Scott watched as the other stared at him worriedly for another moment before finally backing off
and going back to leaning against the wall. Although this time, he leaned just his shoulder and the
side of his body, staying in a position where he could keep his eyes on him.
“M’sorry I kept you up all night.” Tango murmured, catching Scott off guard.
Just like that, his attention was on him again.
“You kept me up?” He said, surprised. “I’m the one who overreacted over the explosion.”
Tango hummed, the other’s eyes still locked with his own. “Yeah, but I’m the one who indulged
you. And I wouldn’t shut up about the moon thing.”
Scott found himself mirroring Tango’s position. Twisting his body to rest a single shoulder and the
side of his head against the wall as he leaned his face in closer. Scott was so tired, and Tango
seemed so warm.
“My appearance probably had you thinking about it the entire game.” He argued back. “I wouldn’t
blame you if you were just dying to bring it up.”
“Heh, yeah.” Tango laughed. “You’re right about that, actually.”
They both seemed so out of it in that moment. There could have been another explosion that went
off right outside the base and neither of them would have probably noticed. All Scott could focus
on right now was Tango, who likewise seemed to have his sleepy eyes locked in a staring match
with him. Although, oddly enough, Scott wouldn’t say he felt awkward in this position. Maybe part
it was the tiredness. Who’s to say? More so however, he was simply staring back at Tango because
there was nowhere else to look. Moving now just seemed like a pointless waste of energy, which
he did not have very much of. So why bother? The position he was in now was just fine.
“Hey.” Scott spoke up eventually. He’d subconsciously found himself looking over every detail of
Tango’s face. Most especially, his eyes, which at this time of night, where not so much a far cry
from his own. Both contained areas around them that displayed the beginnings of dark rings. They
weren’t exactly the most noticeable of features, but from this distance…
“We’re matching now.”
Tango blinked slowly. His eyes remained half-lidded, and he too, seemed unbothered by the steady
eye contact. “Are we?” His voice was quiet. He was definitely tired, but he also didn’t need to
speak very loud for Scott to hear him given how close they were.
“Yeah…” Slowly, unknowingly, Scott lifted his free hand up. He saw Tango follow it calmly with
his eyes, but ultimately, made no attempts to try and move away.
Scott kept it hovering over the other’s face, just an inch closer and he would have been cupping his
cheek. He wasn’t quite sure what he was doing. All Scott knew, was that he kind of wanted to trace
his thumb over the curve of one of the dark rings.
Maybe Tango would let him.
Instead of following through, however, Scott suddenly opted to drop his arm completely from
where he was holding it up. He felt the rest of his body relax as he calmly shut his eyes. It was
almost as if his brain were now forcibly shutting down his body after being unable to push it for
any longer.
Scott passed out just as soon as he heard birds chirping outside.

Chapter End Notes
Part 2 of Scott acting sleep drunk around unsuspecting people

Chamomile
Chapter Summary
Tango gets an invitation from Etho to go mining. Him and Scott have a talk about what
happened the night before
Chapter Notes
Rage. That was all Tango could feel. That was all he was capable of feeling.
Scar had burnt down his home—their home. And for what? Cause his stupid horse got stolen??
Tango seethed, smoke was pouring out of the edges of his mouth, fire licking his skin and hair. If it
wasn’t Scar it was always someone. Someone who tried to keep them from just being happy,
whether that be laughing over the swiftness of their first death, taunting them with horns, or
burning their house down. There was always something. Well, if that’s how it was always going to
be, then why not get some revenge? He’d show them. He’d set this world ablaze and take everyone
down with him—
“Tango!”
The blaze blinked, his ears twitching. Someone was calling for him, trying to get his attention. But
why should he care? He still wanted to burn everything. He’d burn whoever this was too.
“Tango, snap out of it!”
He turned around to where the noise was coming from, ready to pounce on whoever was yelling at
him.
It was Jimmy.
“Jimmy, get back!” Another voice yelled. “He looks really unhinged; we need to leave!”
Tango looked around. There were a total of six people there. They’d all stepped back a good
distance away from him, all had looks of absolute terror. Except for one, who was actively moving
forward.
“Tango, breathe.” He urged, holding a hand up cautiously.”
“ Scarrrr… ” Tango continued seething.
“I know you want to kill him, but let’s think about this.”
The blaze looked back up at the ranch. It was still on fire, still breaking appart.
“Hey! Don’t look at the ranch, look at me.”
There was the voice again. The voice of… His soulmate. His partner.
The haziness in his mind cleared up ever so slightly. Tango obeyed, turning back to look at Jimmy.
He looked scared, just like the rest of them, but he wasn’t letting that hold him back.
“I’m not going to tell you you’re out of line here. Jimmy spoke, voice shaking nervously. “I’m
angry about this too.”
He lowered his hand, taking another step forward.
“It’s just like you told me, right? You probably want to burn the whole world down right now, and
I don’t blame you for that.”
Another voice, Joel’s, spoke from behind him. “Jimmy, I don’t think-“
“So if that’s really what you want to do, then why don’t you start right here?” The canary spoke
louder, ignoring the voices of reason coming from behind him. “Take me down first.” He urged,
putting a hand to his own chest. “And then, when you respawn as a red life, you can do whatever
you want.”
The blaze glared at him harshly through his now solid red eyes. This didn’t make sense to him.
Jimmy looked more terrified than everyone else here. And yet, in this moment, he was offering
himself up to him. Why?
It didn’t matter he would kill them all anyway. Whoever ended up dying first was of no concern to
him.
…But—no. No, he couldn’t kill him. Not his soulmate. He’d said he he was going to help him.
He’d already taken their first life away. How could he do something like that again? And on
purpose this time?
He hadn’t noticed that the canary had gotten closer, effectively closing most of the distance
between them.
“C’mon Tango…” He said calmly, almost begging him to try it. “I’m right here.”
He had his arms outstretched. Then, he did something Tango hadn’t anticipated. He hugged him.
Tango could see the damage they were both taking as his soulmate’s skin made contact with his
flames. He was hurting him. He was hurting Jimmy. He didn’t want to hurt Jimmy. He needed to
stop.
Tango didn’t know when it registered in his brain that he felt safe again, but without even noticing
it, his flames died out, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. The haze in his head cleared,
and all he was left with was what was in front of him.
He held Jimmy back.
“I don’t want to hurt you…” He said weakly, mumbling into the other’s shoulder.
“I know.” Jimmy replied. “I know you’d never do that.” He pulled away slightly, just enough to
look Tango in the eyes.
“I trust you.”
Tango flinched at those words. He was fully ready to kill Jimmy just a minute ago. And yet, he
took a chance with him and bet his own life that he wouldn’t follow through with it. What in the
world had he even done to earn trust like that?
“Are you alright?” Jimmy asked, his concern obvious in his tone. He was holding the side of
Tango’s face in his hand, touching him as if he were the most precious thing in the world. Jimmy
had never done that before, but feeling it now, it was—nice .
“…You brought me back.” Tango said, still in awe at the situation. He reached his own hand up to
touch the one Jimmy had on his face, calmly leaning into him. “You’re amazing.” He spoke
sincerely.
Not so surprisingly, Jimmy turned bright red at that. He opened his mouth, likely about to
awkwardly list off all the reasons why he didn’t think he was amazing before they were both
interrupted.
“So- is he back to normal now, or-?” Cleo asked, peeking her head out cautiously from behind her
shield.
Tango saw Jimmy roll his eyes. “Yes, Cleo. Everything’s fine now.”
Slowly, everyone relaxed their gear and started making their way back towards them. Tango
watched Jimmy give him one more soft smile before slipping his hand off from the side of his face
and turning back around to face the rest of the group.
There was some conversation between all of them after that, about what happened, what Jimmy
had said; some people started throwing around ideas on how they should go about getting revenge.
Tango was still mad at Scar, that was still a certainty. But as long as Jimmy was around, he felt as
though his anger didn’t need to be at the forefront of his mind all the time. No one had any idea
just how monumental this was to him. In that moment, only Tango knew that this was the first and
only time his flames had ever gone down by just—being talked to. Jimmy had been his anchor, his
guardian angel. And as of that moment, the way he’d been viewing his soulmate before had
changed drastically.
He wondered if Jimmy had felt a shift in things too.
So far, every morning that Tango had woken up on this server for had at least one thing in
common: his boyfriend—who usually falls asleep right next to him—was no where to be seen. The
difference this time, however, was that he knew exactly what reason he had for not being here this
time around. And that actually made things so, so much worse.
That’s not to say that he wasn’t still lacking a warm body next to him.
Tango’s groggy eyes fluttered open as he tried to adjust to the sudden sunlight hitting them. The
stiffness in his body was what caught his attention first. It felt as though he’d been curled up in a
small ball that entire night, trying to take up as little space on the bed as possible. What was most
noticeable was his arm, or rather, the lack of feeling in it.
He finally opened his eyes all the way, the blurriness now subsiding as what was in front of him
came into focus.
It was Scott.
Tango’s eyes quickly widened, but he didn’t try to move right away. The other had apparently
opted to use his arm as a pillow rather than any of the actual pillows. Well, that explained the
numbness Tango was feeling there. Ouch. Other than that however, there wasn’t much more
contact between them. They were just—really—close to each other.
Tango was on his stomach, but the angle he had turned his head at easily gave him a clear view of
Scott’s face. Despite the awkwardness this should have created, Tango’s first instinct wasn’t to
yank his arm away and get up. Rather, he stayed there for a while, studying the other. Tango could
see clear creases on Scott’s face from this distance. The ones that most likely came about from
stress or making emotional expressions. He figured that was a good thing that he could see them.
That meant that Scott was at ease in this moment, he certainly looked it. His eyebrows weren’t
furrowed, his jaw was unclenched; he seemed so much calmer now.
As his sleepy mind started rebooting, Tango began to recall how things had went for them last
night. He couldn’t help but feel a bit prideful at the fact that he’d managed to keep Scott from
leaving that entire time. He hadn’t expected him to actually take some of his words into
consideration. He figured he’d just gotten lucky the first time after he’d kept him from jumping off
the ravine. But now—perhaps it was more than luck? Maybe the other really did place some value
onto his words, however little that might be, at least it was still something. But that wasn’t the most
unexpected part of last night. Not by far.
Scott was acting very strange. Tango knew there were a lot of things that a tired brain can make a
person do, but what Scott said right before he fell asleep… it seemed more—personal. Now he was
remembering fully. Scott leaned into him, said he was sorry for keeping him up, and then—he,
might? have tried to touch him? Tango knew he hadn’t found it strange at the time. Although
looking back now, it was definitely an odd experience. Less odd in what Scott was doing. Tango
could already deduce that that must have mostly been the work of other’s sleep-deprived brain. But
more so, it was odd in the sense that Tango didn’t recall feeling the need to move. Not then, not in
that moment, not all throughout the night, he didn’t want to leave.
That was weird.
He wondered if Scott would remember any of that when he woke up. The man did fall asleep right
after from what Tango could remember. Leave it to Scott to pass out in the most ridiculous position
imaginable. He remembered having to carefully help his body lie backwards until he was lying flat.
Then, too tired to even think, lied down himself on the same bed and fell right asleep. It was
technically his bed, after all.
As of right now however, he was definitely starting to regret that decision.
The blaze decided that it was now or never. Slowly, carefully, he started easing his arm out from
under Scott’s head. He got about half of its length out successfully before his luck ran out and Scott
started shifting around. Tango stopped all movement right away, holding his breath as he watched
the other seemingly stretch a single arm out unconsciously and let out a small yawn before rolling
over to his other side and doing the rest of Tango’s work for him.
Tango grinned, letting a leg fall off the bed before standing up and getting off completely. He was
free now. Success! He looked back over to Scott, able to see his whole body much clearer now.
The blanket had long since been kicked away to the edge of the bed by one of them. He wasn’t
sure who. As for Scott, he’d fallen asleep with his shirt on but now had half of it very visibly hiked
up, exposing his stomach and lower back. Additionally, his hair was an absolute wreck, sticking up
strangely in all the wrong places. Tango held back a laugh, still trying to keep quiet so as to not
wake him up. He wondered if this was what Jimmy would wake up to all the time when the two
were still dating.
That… was a weird thought to have. Tango’s smile slowly dropped. Had he really only just
remembered now who Scott was to him? Cause apparently that had slipped his mind for most of
last night. Or it at least wasn’t a major concern he had. He wasn’t sure what kind of weird spell had
overcome both of them to make them act so casual towards each other, but for the majority of last
night, they might as well have been friends, and no person other than those who already knew
them would’ve be able to tell the difference.
He wondered if all that would go away once this game ended. And he wondered at what point he
suddenly gave a damn about what the answer to that might be.
Tango let out a sad sigh, turning around to walk over to a large chest on the other end of the room.
Cautiously, he shifted through it, trying his best not to make too much noise. There were a lot of
things that needed to get done today. For one, since the decoy base was destroyed, he wanted to try
something similar to what he did during Double Life and hide all their important belongings in a
way that was a bit less extravagant and time consuming. He’d make a chest or two that they could
hide under the floorboards, and then, he’d keep the regular chests right above those and fill them
with just enough things to make it look like they didn’t have much. Basically, a decoy chest.
Tango had only just gotten out a few stacks of items when he felt his comm buzz in his pocket. He
vanished the remaining items he had in his hands and reached for it.
<BdoubleO100> HEY
<BdoubleO100> Which one of you guys BLEW UP Jimmy and Tango’s base!?
Tango chuckled under his breath. He hadn’t gotten the chance to actually talk to Bdubs yet, but it
seemed as though he was angry enough about the explosion for the both of them, despite the base
not even being his. It was a nice reminder that they were still on good terms after all the drama.
<Tango> So someone finally saw that wreck, huh?
<Tango> It’s all good dude. I just moved to Scott’s base instead
He stopped what he was doing and waited for a while, expecting Bdubs to say something. Instead,
he got Etho.
<Etho> Hey Tango

<Etho> Sorry about the build
<Tango> Dude really, it’s fine
<Etho> Me, Cleo and Bdubs were gonna go mining today and from the looks of it it seems like we
could both use the extra protection
He had a point, what with them being the most wanted team on the server and Cleo’s team still
fully green.
He was about to reply, telling him he’d come as soon as Scott woke up, but before he could,
another message popped up, practically jump-scaring him.
Smallishbeans was slain by bigbst4tz2
LDShadowlady died
“HOLY-!”
Tango quickly slammed a hand over his own mouth, having nearly forgotten about Scott. He
looked up quickly to see the other stir a little and groan quietly before carelessly easing back into
his previous position. Whew.
<Tango> Holy shit
<Etho> It’s like he’s speed-running being a red life
<Tango> Man didn’t even wait 24 hours
<LDShadowLady> BIGBBBBBB
<Smallishbeans> Why do I get the feeling that this is your attempt at revenge for what happened
in last life?
<bigbst4tz2> I will neither confirm or deny that accusation
<Smallishbeans> You’re starting to sound an awful lot like Grian right now
Welp, if this didn’t just make things worse for them. The most wanted team and the now only
fully green team on the server were working with each other. Tango was concerned about how this
might go down for them, but at the same time, he felt a jolt of guilty excitement course through his
body. Things were getting much more interesting now.
He wished Jimmy could be here for it.
<Tango> Etho could you maybe hold off on mining for another hour or two?
<Tango> Theres just a few things I need to finish up over here
<Etho> Yeah that’s cool. Just come to the lighthouse when you’re ready
<Tango> Great, thanks
It was already late in the day. From where the sun was in the sky, it had to be almost noon. Tango
figured he might as well get started on this since it didn’t require him to leave the house. He still
didn’t think it was a good idea for either him or Scott to be left on their own, after all.
He continued sorting through the chest and throwing anything that looked valuable in the secret
chest. All the while hoping that Scott wouldn’t wake up and kick him out after finding out he went
through his stuff and re-organized all of it.
All that was finished up quite quickly despite Tango still having to move carefully. Once he was
done he looked back over at Scott. Just as he’d suspected, he was still asleep. No matter though, He
could still find some ways to occupy himself for the time being.
Tango threw his sweater and vest back on and quietly stepped out. Being around the cabin should
still be fine so long as he didn’t wander too far. He remembered seeing a chicken or two walking
around on his way over here. Chances are, they were still in the area.
He circled around to the back of the cabin and took a look at the large, fenced-off area Scott had
set up when he’d first built the place. He was curious on what he was planning to do with it, hold
livestock? Grow wheat? Maybe start on some kind of garden like Ren and Impulse had? That
would be neat to see. Tango did know that Scott had a great appeal towards flowers. Maybe he
didn’t particularly like them when they were decorating certain builds, but for the most part, it
seemed as though he still adored them. The theme of his empire was proof enough of that. A
garden made by him would look nice.
Tango was pulled from his thoughts at the sudden sound of clucking. He turned his head to where
the noise was coming from, and sure enough, there were two chickens just walking around the
edge of the forest.
He started moving towards them, muttering. “Hello there, don’t wanna kill you, just want your
eggs…” The chickens didn’t seem to care what the blaze was doing as he crouched down to pick
up the three that he saw, storing them away in his inventory.
He was about to stand back up, but at that level, something else caught his eye. Growing out of the
edge of one of the fence posts, Tango saw a batch of a few white and yellow flowers. Casually, he
went over to grab them, storing those away as well.
He thought Scott might like them.
It wasn’t much longer before he actually woke up. At the time, Tango had moved back out to the
backyard and hadn’t had his eyes on him, so he was a bit startled upon suddenly hearing Scott’s
voice right behind him.
“What time is i-?”
“Whoah!” Tango yelled, quickly dropping the stick he was using as a fire poker back into the
campfire. He turned around, meeting face to face with a much calmer and thankfully, less tired-
looking Scott.
“Uh- sorry.” He said quietly.
Tango stood there for a moment before letting a long breath out and cracking a smile. “Don’t worry
about it.” He replied, grabbing a new stick and looking back towards the fire. Scott moved to stand
next to him, his attention now also captured by the flames.
“I think it’s like, noon-ish? I don’t really know.”
“What-?” Scott jolted. “Why didn’t you wake me up when you woke up??”
Tango gave him a deadpanned stare. Scott quickly shut his mouth, as if only just now realizing The
absurdity of that question. “Okay, yeah, I get it.” He said, looking back at the fire. “So, what’s all
this?”
Tango shrugged. “Figured I’d set up in your backyard since you weren’t using it for anything at
the moment.” He took what he was making off of the fire and scraped it off into two separate
wooden bowls. “But did you have a purpose for it?”
Scott stared back at him blankly. “I did, at one point.”
Tango blinked. “Okayyy…” He wasn’t quite sure what to make of that answer, but Scott still
didn’t seem to care much that he was cooking out here.
“Is that one mine?” Scott said, pointing to one of the bowls.
“Oh, yeah.” Tango replied, handing it over to him. It wasn’t much, just some scrambled eggs and
plain toast, but he thought it’d do them both some good to sit down and calmly have an actual meal
every now and then instead of just haphazardly shoving bread and steak into their mouths all the
time whenever they needed to heal.
He watched as Scott went to sit on the grass. It was then that Tango remembered something. “Oh,
right.” He said, sitting down next to the other while summoning a mug from his inventory. “Found
some flowers growing outside the fence, so I figured I’d make chamomile since you like it so
much.”
He watched as Scott raised an eyebrow, looking at him suspiciously, but accepting the tea none the
less. “When did I…?”
“Um, last night?” Tango replied, puzzled. “You said you really liked tea and that chamomile was
one of your favorites.”
“Oh…” Scott said, sounding equally confused. “I- right. No, yeah, I remember now.” He smelled
the tea before taking a sip, seemingly enjoying it.
“Tango,” Scott started again. “was I acting—weird last night?”
Tango swallowed the mouthful of eggs he had, pausing. “Only the normal amount.” He grinned.
“Tango, seriously-“
“I don’t know what to tell you man.” He said, setting the bowl back down. “You said some creepy
stuff about my eyes and then fell asleep on my arm.” He looked at Scott for any kind of reaction
and just as quickly, saw him cringe slightly and put a hand to his mouth.
“So, yeah.” Tango went on, now trying to play down his reaction. “Maybe you were a little weird,
but it’s not a big deal. If anything, it was kind of funny.”
Funny? Well, it was certainly something. It reminded him of each time Jimmy had tiredly
collapsed into bed during the game, and even a few times before that. With Jimmy, he had always
found it cute. With Scott—
—Maybe he should just stick with ‘funny’ for Scott. What else would it have been?
“Why are you being nice to me?” Scott said suddenly, making Tango freeze in place.
He slowly turned his head to look at the other, letting out a weak laugh. “Don’t think that calling
someone ‘creepy’ and ‘weird’ qualifies as nice.”
“You know what I mean.” Scott continued, his tone more serious. “It was yesterday, and last night,
and now it’s today. Why?”
Tango stayed silent for a moment. He could name a few reasons off the top of his head. He still
needed to keep Scott from killing himself, he had come to respect him a little more than he did
before the game, he now saw him less like an agressive ex and more like a person who was going
through a rough patch and didn’t know what to do about it, a situation that he wouldn’t have to be
dealing with if it weren’t for him.
Tango relaxed his body, trying to clear his head. “I already told you.” He replied. “I don’t hate
you.”
All those reasons and that was what he settled on? ‘I don’t hate you’?
Scott stared at him curiously. Surprisingly, he said nothing. Just gazed at him calmly as if trying to
memorize every part of his face. Tango watched him back, the same way that he did the night
before when he suddenly realized that he wanted nothing more in that moment than to know what
the other really thought of him.
“Bigb killed Lizzie, by the way.” He blurted out quickly, trying to start the conversation again.
“What?” Scott asked, surprised.
“And also Etho invited us to go mining today-“
“Wait- slow down!” The other held a hand up. “Lizzie’s on yellow?”
Tango nodded. “Lizzie’s on yellow.”
He picked his bowl back up, reaching for his piece of toast and biting at it. “He said it’d be safer
for both our groups to stick together right now, and I agree with him.”
He watched Scott pause, putting a hand to his chin. “That does make sense.” He shrugged, going
back to his own bowl as well. “Sure, let’s go once we’re done then.”
There wasn’t really anything of importance said after that. They talked for a while, about the night
before, about anything else. Tango found himself eating slower, as if he was subconsciously trying
to keep them there for as long as possible. Almost every interaction between them after last night
felt a little less awkward and a little more natural. It was a nice feeling.
Maybe he could get used to this.
Chapter End Notes
Scott - Green
Jimmy - X
Tango - Yellow
Cleo - Green
Bdubs - Green
Etho - Green
Grian - Green
Scar - Yellow
Bigb - Red
Ren - Green
Martyn - Yellow
Impulse - Yellow
Pearl - Green
Joel - Green
Lizzie - Yellow
If You Love Him Let Him Go
Chapter Summary
The alliance all go mining together. Etho and Tango get into a really deep
conversation.
Chapter Notes
The two of them were able to clean up and get ready quickly enough. Tango, of course, didn’t want
to keep Etho and his team waiting for too long.
“Hey have you seen my-?”
“Got it.” Scott replied, and, as if reading his mind, tossed Tango the axe that he’d stored away.
“But do you know where I-?”
“Over here.” Tango said back, handing Scott his over-shirt that he’d thrown on top of a chest last
night.
As had been the case for a while now, communication with the other was continuing to get a lot
easier. No more yelling and burning things, no more arguments and outbursts, and while still very
reoccurring, Tango had found that the awkward pauses they’d both share whenever one of them
brought up Jimmy in conversation were dwindling down to a minimum. This was good. He liked
things this way. Whatever this was, exactly. Not a friendship. No. But something that imitated it.
Although, who was he to say for sure? For all he knew, Scott could still hate him to the ends of the
earth. He’d never claimed he liked him, after all. If that were the case, all Tango knew was that
he’d be upset, but not surprised. He’d said it before after Jimmy had died and it still held true now.
He didn’t hate Scott, but he had no right to expect the same of him.
Regardless of what the other did think, at least the walks to and from places weren’t nearly as quiet
anymore.
—
Approaching the lighthouse, Tango saw that both Cleo and Etho were already outside sitting on the
beach and talking. He waved at them as him and Scott walked over.
“Hey guys.” The blaze smiled. “You ready to head out?”
Cleo smiled back, stretching her legs and standing up. “Yep!”
Etho simply nodded. It was then that Tango realized they were missing a person. “Where’s
Bdubs?”
Etho sighed. “Ah, he actually made some last minute plans with someone. It’s just gonna be us for
today, if that’s alright.”
Tango blinked, then, lowered his head slightly. “He’s visiting Impulse, isn’t he?”
Neither of them responded to that question, but that was confirmation enough for him. Tango had
no problem with Bdubs dating his ex; he hadn’t had a problem with it from the very beginning. At
least, not in terms of jealousy. But still, it stung a little knowing that he’d rather be hanging out
with Bdubs than trying to make any kind of amends with him.
Cleo seemed to sense the sudden tension in the air, as she was quick to break the silence. “Uh-
alright then” She spoke, beginning to walk forward. “Let’s head out now, while the sun’s still up,
yeah?”
“I’m sure Jimmy and Scott have told you about the alliance we made with our teams a few days
back?” Cleo continued as they approached the edge of the mountain area.
Tango turned to look at Scott. He had indeed told him about all that last night. And before then,
Jimmy did mention to him the deal Cleo had made them that offered their team essentially
unlimited beef for the rest of the game, which he’d certainly come to appreciate.
“They did, yeah.” Tango replied.
Cleo hummed. “Well, that alliance extends to you, of course. So just message us if you ever need
back up for something and we’ll be there.”
He looked to Scott, who gave a small nod in return. “Same here.” He said, looking upward as they
appeared to be approaching the cave entrance.
“We found this really big one under the mountains.” Etho spoke.
“Woah.” Tango gazed upward along with the rest of them.
“Yeah.”
The space looked even grander as the four walked inside. A lot of it was already pre-lit with a
number of spammed torches, so there were hardly any mobs around. To that extent, it was also a
very open space, with a few visible smaller tunnel entrances popping up along the cave’s walls.
“Think a good few people have been here already, actually.” Cleo spoke, her voice noticeably
letting out a slight echo across the vast space. “There’s still lots to explore though.”
Tango had to agree. This cave was enormous. He wondered if him and Scott had been the last
people on the server to see it, as it must have surely attracted the attention of anyone who walked
past it.
“We need to get out more.” Scott suddenly said. Tango could see that he had also been gazing up
at the high ceiling in awe.
“Yeah, this place is huge.” Tango replied, putting extra emphasis on the last word to the point
where it echoed a bit louder than the rest.
Scott turned to him, seeming to take his increased volume as some sort of challenge. “Absolutely
gigantic!” He said back, chuckling.
“MONUMENTOUS!” Tango yelled. He heard Cleo and Etho start laughing as well, and from
there, the only noises that could be heard in the cave were a series of loud screams and echos of
random sentences.
“I AM SOOOOO TIRED!” Scott shouted.
“GRIAN SUCKS!!” Tango shouted back.
“I’M GONNA KILL SCAR!!” Said Etho.
“I STILL OWE PEARL SIX HUNDRED DIAMONDS!!” Cleo suddenly screamed.
“Pffff- what??”
“WE’RE ALL ACTING LIKE CHILDREN!”
“YEAAAAAH!”
“WHOOOOO-!!”
Eventually, the yelling, and even the contagious laughter echoing off the walls died down.
“Ohhh…” Tango heaved, catching his breath from all the laughing and yelling. “Oh I really wish I
had a horn right now.”
Cleo groaned dramatically. “Oh god, now we’ve got him wanting a horn again.”
Etho laughed. “In this cave, I think that’d cause way too much noise for my liking.”
Tango saw Scott cross his arms, still grinning. “If I ever get rammed by a goat, I’ll let you know.”
The blaze smiled. “I’ll hold you to that…”
For the most part, they kept within a few meters of each other, all of them walking around the cave
floor and mining out any left-behind scraps that the other players had missed, which was
surprisingly a lot.
Scott didn’t immediately move away from him; Tango didn’t try to go anywhere else in the cave
either. They’d stay close and talk occasionally, mostly just bringing up whatever it was they’d
suddenly find.
“Lapis, you think we could use that for enchantments?”
“Assuming Scar didn’t steal the table again, sure.”
Or whenever small problems arose.
“Oop- pic broke.”
“Here, I have some diamonds.”
Nothing of note really happened, they didn’t talk about anything insightful either. That was, until
Scott sprung something up on Tango out of the blue.
“We’re you upset that Bdubs wanted to be with Impulse?”
Tango nearly choked on air. What?? When did Scott find out that he’d been dating Impulse before-
?
“Y’know, cause he couldn’t come mining with us?”

Oh. Oh. Right, of course he was just referring to earlier today.
“No.” Tango said. “Not that much.” Either way, that answer would have remained truthful
regardless of what context Scott’s question might have had.
Scott watched him intently, looking as though he was about to open his mouth again, before Cleo
started yelling something from across the cave.
“Hey! Scott!” Cleo spoke. “Come check out this tunnel with me? There’s no torches there so I
don’t think anyone’s raided it yet!”
Scott looked at Tango once more before turning away. “Sure!” He said, making his way over to
Cleo.
Almost immediately, Tango felt lonely. Which was weird, considering that he should have been
feeling lonely ever since Jimmy died, but he didn’t. He missed him, of course he missed him and
wanted so badly to tell him about everything that had been going on since he left, but he didn’t feel
alone in this. Not at all.
Tango looked way over to the tunnel where Cleo and Scott had wandered off into. Etho was
mining a vein of iron along one of the side-walls next to the entrance. Without thinking too much
about it, the blaze made his way over to him.
“It’s good to see that you’re having fun again.” Tango said, still a few feet behind him.
“Having fun?” Etho said questioningly, turning his head around.
Tango shrugged, now having walked up to his side. “Y’know, just that you’re showing emotions
again, and you aren’t hiding away or avoiding people.”
Etho paused, blinking slowly before letting out a sigh. “Yeah, I guess you could say that’s what
I’m doing.”
Tango looked at him, concerned. He wasn’t quick to forget all of the problems that Etho had been
dealing with, and certainly not the similarities that those problems shared with his own. Ever since
yesterday when Scott revealed his feelings for Jimmy to him, and even some time before then,
Tango hadn’t been able to shake the feeling of guilt off him for what he did.
Maybe Etho could give him some insight on all of that? Although, he really didn’t seem any better
off than he did. Regardless, he might as well ask. He’d been wanting to talk with him anyway.
“I know we haven’t spoken much since the game started, but I’ve been meaning to talk to you
about something.”
Etho had gone back to ming by now, his expression unreadable.
Tango lowered his voice, minding the echo that still sounded whenever any of them spoke too
loudly. “-And this is going to sound really personal and maybe a little abrupt and it’s okay if you
don’t even want to-“
“Shoot.” Etho said, still expressionless, still swinging his pic.
“I- right, okay then…” Tango took in a deep breath, composing himself. “After all this time, I
could never figure out whether you were upset over losing Joel… or upset over what you- er- what
your situation—did to Lizzie.”
He watched Etho’s body flinch for a moment before steadying itself and going right back to doing
what it was doing before.
“I guess it was a little of both.” He spoke quietly. Tango didn’t recognize anything in his voice that
might have indicated he was lying.
Perhaps he wasn’t the only person who could compare himself to Etho in this situation. Tango had
been thinking about Scott a lot; he’d already deduced why exactly he’d stayed in the game and only
felt the urge to leave once Jimmy was gone.
“Etho…” Tango bit his lip, entirely hoping that his assumptions weren’t true, but ultimately,
knowing that there couldn’t be another explanation. “Why—are you here? ”
Not ‘why did you come with us?’ Not ‘why are you in this cave?’ Why are you here. Why are you
in this game, putting yourself through this all over again?
Etho seemed to understand the question without even having to think. He stopped mining
completely, shoulders slumping and body suddenly projecting the stress that his mind must have
certainly been under.
“…I wish I could answer that for you, Tango. I really do.
Tango’s heart sank. Etho turned to face him fully, running a hand over the back of his neck
anxiously. “I think— maybe —I thought I’d get to see him again. He sighed defeatedly. “And
again, I reminded myself that it was wrong to want that, but then I convinced myself to go anyway,
and now, I’m back to convincing myself to stay away.”
Tango stared at him worriedly.
“I don’t know… Etho continued. “Maybe I love him, or maybe I have no idea what love feels like
and all this is just me being dramatic.”
“Etho-“
“Tell me I’m wrong?” Etho said, still speaking in an unsettlingly neutral tone. “Please. Please
tell me I’m an idiot for keeping my distance and that I should go to him right now.”
Tango said nothing of the sort. He simply stood there for a moment before shaking his head,
bringing his gaze to the ground. “It isn’t fair…”
He heard the other sigh quietly, vanishing his pic and moving to lean against the cave wall before
eventually slumping down against it. Tango followed.
“What the hell did we do?” He muttered, pulling his knees against his chest.
“ We?” Etho asked a little too loudly. Tango quickly held a hand up, shushing the other. He
seemed to understand, having forgotten about the echo and lowered his voice as he continued. “I’m
sorry-? Did you have some kind of realization while you were gone?”
Tango looked back over to him, smiling sadly. “Maybe… I mean, are we really that different?
What we both did after Double Life, I mean.”
Etho hummed, seeming to have lightened up slightly at the new question. “Well, let’s see…” He
started. “If I’m being honest here—I am allowed to be honest now, right?”
Tango perked his head up, scowling. “What the- were you not being honest to me before??”
Etho shrugged. “Hey man, you were in a bad place back then, we both were. And I didn’t want to
worsen that by playing ‘morality police’ with you. Not to mention that someone else’s relationship
problems are none of my business.”
Tango glared at him, unamused.
“Whatever- just- listen.” Etho continued. “The way I see it—and I did literally see it happen—your
boyfriend and his ex did most of the legwork in ending things between them, alright? You basically
just stood there.”
Tango kept glaring at him, deadpanned. “Gee, thanks.”
Etho rolled his eyes before continuing. “With me though—it’s different.”
“How, exactly?
“It just… is.”
Etho took in a breath. Tango watched as he picked a rock up off the ground and observed it
indifferently while he spoke. “Joel doesn’t want me. I bring out the worst in him. He didn’t say
that, of course, but I know its true.
Tango eased off him a little with the attitude, nodding along quietly.
“He may have been sobbing the entire time, but regardless, he still broke things off with me. It was
exactly like how Grian reacted to his relationship. From the moment the game ended, Joel had
already made his choice to stick with his wife. And maybe I’m giving myself too much credit here,
maybe it wasn’t selflessness that provoked me to react this way and I just didn’t have the strength
to fight back in that moment, but you know what I did in the end?”
Tango stayed silent, raising an eyebrow.
“I let him go.” Etho finished, carelessly tossing the rock he had across the cave. “That’s what’s
different between you and me.”
Tango’s glare was quick to return. What was Etho saying? That he was selfish for not letting
Jimmy go with Scott? That’s ridiculous!
“But- but Jimmy didn’t even want to leave me!” Tango protested, suddenly flinching upon hearing
a slight echo and lowering his voice once more.
“It doesn’t matter.” Etho replied calmly. “You never offered up the option to him.”
“He wouldn’t have taken it if I had.”
“Can you really be so sure about that?”
The blaze opened his mouth again to speak.
But nothing came out.
Was he sure about that? Had he been asked that at the beginning of this game, his answer would
have been a hard ‘yes’. He would have assumed that Scott was bitter jerk who didn’t appreciate
Jimmy enough to want to at least try to keep him around and that Jimmy had moved on from him a
long time ago.
But then, it turned out that Jimmy hadn’t, in fact, moved on at all, and maybe Scott wasn’t really a
jerk like Tango had thought he was, and apparently they both still had some very strong feelings
towards each other—and oh god, what else could he have been wrong about?? What had this
conversation gotten to? He’d hoped Etho could help him navigate his feelings of guilt, not make
him even more confused!
Given the sudden look of worry the blaze likely had on while added to the prolonged silence,
Tango was sure Etho was starting to get a little concerned for him.
Sure enough, he heard Etho let out a regretful groan while running a hand over his face. “See?” He
said. “This is why I tried to keep my mouth shut about this the first time around.”
Tango grit his teeth, trying to force down all of the concerns he was suddenly having. “Fine then.”
He said. Let’s assume he would have gone with Scott had I told him it was okay. Are you saying it
would have been wrong to do so much as look at him after that?”
“Look, all I know from my experience is that Joel would have been happier had he never met me.”
Tango hated whenever this topic got brought up. Especially when it was in his own head. Would
Jimmy have been better off never meeting him? Again, this was a once easily answered question
that had now become a lot more complex since he’d gotten to know Scott. Would Scott have been
a good partner to him? A better one? Was he already being a better one right up until the point of
his and Jimmy’s break up? We’re they perfectly happy before he came along?
After the last game had ended, should he have just let Jimmy go?
“-But I can’t go back in time.” Etho went on. “So, the best I can do for him now is to just stay
away and hope that another few months’ll kill whatever type of insanity it is inside of me that just
makes me want to hold him-“
The other quickly shut himself up before he got too deep into any more detail. He slowly brought a
knee up to his chest and hugged it, appearing to be trying to compose himself. The sight of which,
broke Tango’s heart.
“I’m so sorry.” The blaze spoke quietly.

They sat there in silence for a minute. Etho wasn’t quick to start talking again and Tango could
understand why. But when he did, it was of a different subject completely.
“Zedaph really went and stirred the pot on Hermitcraft.” Etho spoke calmly, gradually working his
way back up to his normal volume. “Like, he really just took an electric whisker to that pot and
completely frothed all of its contents.”
Tango let out a snort. This seemed to have relaxed the atmosphere a little.
“I was on your side during all of that and I’m on your side now, because I get it.” Etho continued.
“I understand you completely, and I don’t think you’re a bad person. But here’s the thing—it
doesn’t matter if you are, if you didn’t mean to hurt others, if you had no intention of pulling
people appart—you still did it. And someone suffered because of the thing that you did.
Tango nodded sadly, looking at the ground. “Jimmy…”
Etho gave him a light shove. “And Scott.”
“And Scott…”
“—And Zed.”
Tango flinched. “I know.”
“You don’t seem like you do.”
“Can you blame me?”
Etho leaned back more, his body relaxing. “No, but I can’t exactly blame him either.”
Tango shot him a glare. “I thought you said you were on my side?”
“I am.” Etho spoke. There was once again, no indication that he was lying.
They left it at that.
“So, about that chat message from Impulse…” Etho spoke, changing the subject once more. “Can
we talk about-?”
“Nope!” Tango answered quickly.
“Hey, I talked about my feelings, now you have to too.”
Tango looked to the ground again. He’d promised himself that he’d stop putting things off, would
stop avoiding his problems. He’d been doing so well too. Was he really going to end all that
progress over something small like this?
“Fine.” The blaze said reluctantly. “He’s mad that the only reason I went to talk to him after so
long was cause I had to and now he’s turned it into this whole thing.”
“Mhmm…” Etho hummed. “And you haven’t tried talking to him in person since?”
“Well I haven’t exactly had the time to go visit him yet-“
That was a lie. He absolutely could have came to him a number of times.
“No. No I haven’t.” Tango murmured, correcting himself.
“Did you ever stop to think about what kind of message that’s sending him? That maybe by
continuing to avoid him you’re only reinforcing his assumptions about you?”
Since when was Etho a therapist? Then again, Tango had been the one to come to him.
“I’ll- I will talk to him again. Before the end of the game.”
He saw Etho’s mask shift, his eyes crinkling up. Tango knew he was sporting that obnoxious grin
of his that anyone could tell was there even under the mask.”
“Y’know, if you ask me-“ He started, before Tango cut him off.
“I really didn’t ask-“
“If you ask me—“ He repeated, his grin still apparent. “I think it’s a little ridiculous on both of your
ends that you guys stopped talking to each other after Double Life. I mean, it’s not like you broke
up on bad terms. Messy ones, maybe, but nothing happened out of hate.
Tango rolled his eyes. “Says the guy who still won’t talk to Joel.”
Etho scoffed dramatically. “Hey, that’s different and you know it. Impulse was your boyfriend for
like, four years. Breaking up with him after Double Life shouldn’t have warranted the silent
treatment—
Whatever lecture the other was about to give him, he didn’t get to finish. A loud Clang! could be
heard from the entrance of the tunnel. Both Tango and Etho’s heads snapped to the side to see what
had made the noise. There, right by the entrance, stood Cleo, in tow with a very surprised-looking
Scott who had apparently just dropped the pickaxe he’d been holding.
“He’s your EX??” Scott asked loudly, eyes wide in what was probably a mix of both surprise and
confusion.
Tango saw Cleo pinch the bridge of her nose, looking downward. “Oh boy…”
Before the blaze could even say anything about any of that Etho stood up to speak, immediately
killing any chances of him convincing Scott that he’d misheard what they were talking about.
“Well-“ Etho said nervously. “he’s one of them-“

“WHAT??” Scott said even louder.
Tango had officially had enough of this.
He stood up as well, his eyes meeting Etho’s and immediately glaring daggers into them.
“And this-“ He yelled, frustrated. “-is why I wanted us to keep our voices down!”
Tango looked back over at Scott.
He had a lot of explaining to do.
Chapter End Notes
Ight, for anyone who was waiting on more ZIT context, here it comes.
Part of Me
Chapter Notes
This—explained a lot, actually.
“Is this about the betting pool?”
“I just don’t want to attack him! Okay??”
No.
“Since you’re apparently sooo close with Impulse, you can go and have a talk with him”
“Hey- waitwaitwait—That’s not- I can’t do that!”
“Sure you can.”
No, no…
“They had some drama between them that happened after the last game, alright? And he’s not
ready to talk with anyone about it.”
He screwed up.
“Oh my god- you act like I murdered him!”
“Well, he probably wishes he was dead right about now.”
He screwed up real bad.

How could Tango have not told him about this? How could Jimmy??
“I was half certain you had just been feigning ignorance to the both of us just so you could have an
excuse to mentally torture Tango.”
Did—they think he was going to use that against Tango? To hurt him? Scott supposed it didn’t
matter. He’d already hurt him, with or without that information. Oh god, he now viewed those chat
messages sent between him and Impulse in a very different light.
He wasn’t happy about getting any kind of revenge on Tango before, but this, this just made him
uncomfortable. Why did he feel like this?? Like he’d just betrayed the trust of a friend? Tango
wasn’t his friend! He shouldn’t even like him!
“Okay, you know what boys? Hermit huddle.” Scott heard Cleo speak suddenly. Then, as if some
kind of switch had been flipped, Tango and Etho immediately started walking over to her, the three
of them hunching over and forming a close circle.
“Wha-?” Scott said, confused. He took a step over to where everyone else had gone, but was
quickly shushed by Cleo, who held her hand up at him in a ‘stop’ motion.
“Scott, seriously, we just need a minute, alright?” She said.
Scott, not knowing what else to do, obeyed.
He kept his distance only a couple of meters away from them, but from there he could still hear the
hushed whispers and loud shushing that went on, somewhat able to catch every other word or
phrase that was said.
“Do we tell him?”
“I can’t-“
“He already knows.”
“He’ll hate me even more-“
“Since when do you care-?”
He tried to pay attention, but all he could think about was what Etho had said.
“he’s one of them.”
‘One of them ’ as in an ex that was less recent? Or did that mean something else?
Scott was very surprised at this information. Etho had mentioned Double Life too apparently.
Unbelievably, Tango had been part of yet another one of the couples who got broken up due to that
horrendous game. He had not expected that in the slightest. But if that were the case, then why
hadn’t him and Impulse been fighting about it after the game like the rest of the couples?
Except—they were fighting. Impulse and Bdubs had been talking to Tango and Jimmy right after
the game had ended.
And he’d cut right through them to yell at Tango…
But—that didn’t matter. Tango had been with someone before the start of the game—just like
Grian had, just like Joel had—and he left him for a new person without hesetation. Except Jimmy
had apparently already known about all of this by now. And he still stayed with him? Did all that
not bother him at all?? It was shallow, wrong, it encompassed so many traits that Scott had
assumed Tango to have possessed from the beginning. And yet, it contradicted so many other
things as well.
Or maybe it was a different situation completely. Maybe Tango was really unhappy in his current
relationship, or worse, what if he was being harmed? It didn’t make sense; Impulse wasn’t a bad
person, but then, it’s not like Scott knew him as well as Tango might have…
Scott heard someone in the circle sigh before the three of them finally broke appart and started
making their way back towards him. Before he could even comprehend what he was saying, he
started talking, letting all the questions he was holding on to in his head flow freely.
“Did Impulse hurt you?” He blurted out quickly, trying not to let the concern he was was feeling
show too much on his face.
“Wh- what??” Tango stammered.
“Did he hurt you??” Scott said more urgently. “Is that why you felt scared to talk to him? Why you
left him for Jimmy? Why you wouldn’t even tell me-?”
“No!” The other yelled, holding a hand up. “No, that’s- shoot- where do I start?”
Scott watched as Tango looked to the ground, eyes shifting in hesitant worry before he brought his
head back up to take in a deep breath of air as if preparing himself for something strenuous.
“I was in a polyamorous relationship before the start of Double Life.”
Scott blinked.
“What?”
Tango bit his lip, gripping the side of one of his arms. “I was in a fairly healthy, non-abusive,
polyamorous relationship for a handful of years.”
Scott’s eyes went wide. This was very unexpected indeed. He quickly looked over to Cleo. She
looked upset, and yet, not a hint of guilt was present on her face. If they were all lying about this,
they were pulling it off really well.
So, what Etho had been saying was true then? But if that were the case, then that meant that Tango
—he hadn’t just stuck with Jimmy because he took a decent liking to him. He broke off a long-
term relationship—with two people—so that he could be with him. If that’s really what happened,
then that meant that Tango hadn’t made the decision to stay with Jimmy lightly. It was something
that was intensely thought-out, something that he took seriously, something that he’d given up a lot
for.
“That-“ Scott stuttered, head spinning. “That’s a really long time…”
It did sound like a much longer time than he’d originally been with Jimmy, that’s for sure.
Tango nodded. “I know. And I ended it, the same day we all got out of the game.”
Scott really needed to sit down right now.
“Why?” He asked, having intended the question to be all encompassing. Although he didn’t stop
at just the one. “Why didn’t you want to tell me the first time? You said it was a healthy
relationship, right? What the heck made you so desperate not to talk about it??”
Cleo stepped in, putting a hand on Tango’s shoulder. “You don’t have to go into detail, Tango. I
know you don’t want-“
“Cleo,” Tango said firmly, his jaw clenched. “I practically stole his boyfriend from him. I think I
owe him this much.”
He said it.
He actually said it.
Before Scott could properly react to any of this, Tango was talking again.
“The thee of us, we go really, really far back.” He said calmly. “I think the first time we really
started feeling something more than friendship for each other was when we were having this sort
of… achievement contest.”
“Mmm, I remember when we did that.” Etho spoke. “All the hermits were put into groups of three.
Each group had their own secluded world to do whatever they wanted in and the objective was to
help your teammates get as many advancements as they could in a certain amount of days.
Whichever group had the most by the end of the time limit won.”
“Exactly.” Tango grinned. “And we all played the game— heh —we actually ended up winning
during the first run.”
Tango’s smile dropped suddenly. He was back to looking at the ground again, before turning to
Cleo.
“Cleo, Etho, you guys already know all of this.” He spoke quietly. “Is it okay if I just talk to Scott
right now?”
Scott was surprised to hear this. How much more intense was this about to get?
He saw Cleo look at him. Without thinking much, he nodded lightly, letting her know it was fine.
“Of course.” Cleo told Tango. It did seem as though she’d been close to calling it a day anyway.
She vanished her pic and grabbed Etho’s hand, bringing him along as she walked up to Scott.
“We’ll see you guys later, alright?” Etho said to both of them.
Scott watched as they moved past him, walking up the small hill and out the cave entrance.
He turned back to Tango, who made a gesture for him to sit down on one of the larger rocks next
to him before sitting down himself. Scott was now even more concerned about what the other
might be about to say next.
“Um, so, during that time, while we were in that world… I don’t know if it was because we were
all by ourselves, because of the privacy we had, or that we’d only had each other for company that
entire time for so long, could have easily been all three.”
He paused. Scott noticed Tango’s throat move, he appeared to swallow uncomfortably before
continuing.
“Eventually, we started trying some new stuff out. Things started getting more… intimant—“
Scott ’s eyes went wide again. Tango was quick to notice and held his hands up defensively.
“—and I was okay with that!” He said quickly. “I… I liked it.”
He saw Tango fold his arms up in a motion to hug himself. Scott recognized this action right away.
It was exactly what he did whenever he needed physical touch and comfort and there was no one
around to give it to him.
Watching it made him feel guilty.
“So then when the game ended, we all figured, hey, we’ve got a good thing going, why stop?”
Tango paused, eyes trained on the ground and smiling sadly to himself. “We were just—messing
around. It was never suppose to-“
His voice hitched for a second. He ignored the sudden delay, continuing.
“Zed was never suppose to see it that way.”
‘Zed’? Was Zedaph the other person Tango was seeing? He wasn’t unfamiliar with the guy. But
really, Scott only knew him through Grian, as one of his friends.
What else did he not know?
“Me and Impulse, we didn’t see it as anything serious at first.” Tango continued. “But then there
was Zed, and he started taking us on dates, and giving us gifts, and using the ‘boyfriend’ label…
Impulse seemed into it; I kind of just went along with it.” Tango sighed. “Because I was stupid.”
Scott shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Oh…” He replied softly.
“I can’t tell for the life of me what any of us might have seen it as exactly. Looking back, even right
after the breakup happened, I think I learned that I really just missed the way they made me feel
and not the actual concept of being with them like that. I thought I loved them. I told them that all
the time. Just threw the word around automatically like it was nothing. Cause that’s what you’re
suppose to say when you’re friends with someone and you’re intimant and you care about them,
right? And I did care about them! God—I cared so much! I didn’t want to hurt either of them!”
Tango leaned back, his eyes watering.
“We should have known better. I should have known better. He viewed us as so much more than
we viewed him and instead of telling him that, we just went along with it. Because why wouldn’t
we? It’s not as though either of us held any real feelings for anyone else. And we just figured that if
that were to happen, we’d break it to him gradually, gently.”
“So, you were together just, out of convenience?” Scott asked, finding his voice.
“Yes.” Tango replied. “We were happy, sure, but our happiness was one formed out of
convenience. We were never going to survive any trials or difficulties that might happen between
us because our bond was weak. It was just one made out of a desire to move forward in a
relationship that didn’t need any advancing to begin with. And looking back, I’m surprised we
lasted this long, but I’m sure that’s just because we were lucky enough to never have to make any
major decisions between us, or had any big disagreements. Our relationship was never serious
enough to warrant those kinds of things anyway.”
Scott pressed on, feeling somewhat ashamed for doing so. “Then what happened?”
“Then?” Tango spoke. “Double Life happened. And so much went down, and everything started
happening so quickly once we all got our memories back—and Impulse wanted Bdubs and- and
I…”
He wanted Jimmy. He wanted him because whatever kind of feelings he’d developed for him had
outweighed several years worth of feelings with two different people.
Scott stayed silent, letting the other skip over Jimmy’s name. They both knew of those details all
too well already.
“-We hadn’t expected it to happen to both of us at the same time. Suddenly, breaking things off
with Zed slowly was no longer an option. Though we did everything we could to soften the blow,
but, it wasn’t enough. Of course it wasn’t enough, because how could we ever think we could hurt
him like that without any consequences?”
Scott leaned in, his heart rate picking up. “What did he do to you, Tango?”
Tango froze at the question.
When he spoke again, his tone was ominously grim.
“What I deserved.”
Scott saw Tango tighten the grip he had on himself as though he’d fall through the ground if he let
go.
“He started talking, a lot. At first, it was the obvious stuff. Me and Impulse broke his heart, left
him for different men with zero warning at the exact same time and although we had no memories
of him while we were in Double Life, we did still cheat on him, so of course he added that in as
well.”
Scott’s heartbeat grew quicker.
“Both of us became the most hated players on our server overnight. The only people who firmly
took our side in that mess were those who were actually in Double Life. The ones who lost their
memories too, who understood how our situation came to be. Cleo, Etho, Grian, Pearl, Bdubs, Scar,
Ren; it tore our friend group appart. Nothing like this had ever happened before. I had friends who
I’d known for years saying it was like they didn’t even know me, calling me heartless and cruel.
People who were closer to Zed started getting defensive of him and the same thing happened with
me and Impulse and our respective friends. Anyone who wasn’t on the same side wouldn’t even
speak to each other.”
Tango sucked in a shaky breath.
“Then, it started getting more personal. Any secrets we might have told him while we were dating
were out, any trauma in my past that I’d vented—everyone knew about, any off-handed complaint
I’d made about another hermit before—they were aware of.”
He paused for a second and laughed sadly. The sound made Scott’s heart ache.
“I used to be so much more insecure about my fire, you know that?” Tango went on. “Then he
went and told our friends every little thing I was afraid of about myself. All my nightmares and
fears and anxieties—everything I ever trusted him with over the past several years was no longer
my own. And suddenly, I had no choice but to either accept defeat and disappear, or grow a spine
and own it.”
“What the actual hell… ” Scott whispered under his breath.
“I guess I should thank him for all that. I came out of it a lot more confident, more fearless.”
“But you can’t trust anyone at all anymore, can you??” Scott asked suddenly, his voiced now
raised enough for it to echo.
Tango looked at him, surprised. Then, his eyes softened.
“I trust him.”
Once again, Scott didn’t need to ask who the other was referring to.
“It isn’t nearly as bad anymore. Months have passed and things have cooled down. After a certain
point, people started to agree that Zed was taking things too far. He stopped after that. I think it
was Mumbo who first started reaching out to people again. Could have been because he was also
in one of the Life games before and already had some kind of idea of how this entire thing could
have come about, but I’m not entirely sure what really made him change his mind. He probably
just missed talking to his best friend. But either way, that more or less of paved the way for
everyone else. I was able to repair most of my friendships, and for the most part, everything went
back to normal. As normal as things could be after that nightmare, anyway.”
Tango sat up straight, finally looking Scott in the eyes.
“But there you have it.” He stated. “That’s what happened. The majority of my friends turned
against me because my ex spilled everything to them and now my life is an open book, whether I
want it to be or not. Talking to Impulse is awkward since we used to be partners, sure, but I also
can’t do so much as look at him without being reminded of everything he went through too. And
yeah, I’m not gonna say I didn’t deserve what happened, but if you’re wondering why I didn’t tell
you about Impulse right away, why I’d prefer as few people as possible to know about my past
love-life, why I always seem to want to hold on to what few secrets I still have control over, that’s
why.”
Scott sat there, stunned.
This wasn’t the Tango he thought he knew at all. Somehow, this was worse. Here Scott had
assumed that Tango had just snatched Jimmy away from him out of pure selfishness. But there was
so, so much more to the story than he’d thought there was. He hadn’t just given up his relationship
for Jimmy, he’d given up everything.
And that wasn’t the only thing that Scott was starting to realize. It was no wonder Tango would
come on to Empires so often. Of course seeing Jimmy was certainly among the reasons for his
frequent visits, but had he also been trying to stay away from his own server as often as possible?
Was it just too painful for him to be there during those first few months after the game had ended??
Every time he’d see his name tag log on Scott would grimace, he’d want to go find Tango and yell
at him to get off, but now, he found himself feeling glad that he’d never done that. Had he known
that that was the only place the other had felt safe and that Jimmy was likely the only person he
really trusted—if he had known everything that he knew about Tango now, well, he might have
felt a little less heated about the whole thing, that’s for sure.
All this also explained why Tango wasn’t completely closed-off to the idea of Jimmy loving both
of them at the same time in the beginning. It was because he’d felt something similar for someone
else at one point as well. Had that been something they’d bonded over? Something that they both
understood about each other that Scott could never even hope to comprehend himself? It was
certainly a possibility.
To Scott, in that moment, it would have easily made sense for him to despise Tango even more
after hearing all of that. He should be feeling a strong desire to tell the blaze that it was cold of him
to do what he did and that he did deserve every bit of what happened next.
He should feel that way. He wanted to feel that way. But instead, Scott just felt the urge to
apologize. He wanted to tell Tango that he was sorry for making him relive these painful memories
and that it was okay for him to keep secrets because everyone does and that’s completely normal
and that he’ll never, ever force him to do or say anything he’s uncomfortable with ever again, no
explanations needed.
Ultimately, Scott decided to stay silent.
“God,” Tango sighed. “you must hate me even more now-“
Wait— what??
Scott stood up immediately, and before he could think to hold his tongue, he told Tango exactly
what was on his mind, word-for-word.
“Who says I still hate you??”
He saw the blaze look up at him, mouth hanging open slightly in what seemed to be shock. “I-
what-?”
Well, there was no misinterpreting that sentence.
But it was the truth.
“I don’t hate you.” Scott said, his voice hesitant and much quieter. Tango didn’t seem any less
shocked hearing it the second time.
He clenched his fists at his sides. “I hate that there’s so much more to you than I thought there was.
I hate that nearly everything I assumed about you was wrong. I hate that you actually do care about
Jimmy, like—really care about him…”
Scott’s heart was now full on racing. He really should shut up right now, but for some reason, he
couldn’t.
“Just- why? Why are you like this??”
Tango had stood up as well by then. He looked at Scott, confused. “ Like…?”

Scott drew in a deep breath, giving himself one last chance to stop talking before he said something
he’d regret.
“Like— you? ”
They both stared at each other. Scott was certain that Tango must have been just as confused with
that question as he was himself.
But then, the blaze spoke again. And suddenly, everything made so much more sense.
“I could ask you the exact same thing.” Tango said quietly, his voice weak.
For a moment, Scott just felt sad. Not angry at Tango, not frustrated at himself, all he could really
feel was a deep sense of hopelessness for their situation as he tried to comprehend just how much
pain the both of them had to have experienced over the past six months just for everything to lead
up to this exact moment.
“Scott, I’ve been so unfair to you since this game started and I’m so sorry for that.” Tango said,
breaking the silence. “I constructed this cruel version of you in my head just to make myself feel a
little less guilty about how things turned out, but I realize now that that’s not who you are—and I-
I-“
He sounded as though he could hardly get the words out, mutually frustrated at the situation they
were in.
“-I don’t know how to fix this…” Tango sighed defeatedly. And there they were again, back to
staring at each other as if all of the answers they were seeking could be found in the other’s eyes.
Scott felt he needed to say something more. There was probably still so much about Tango that he
was in the dark about.
But learning all that would have to wait.
Two loud buzzing noises sounded off in the dead silence of the cave. Scott was the first to break
eye contact as he went to reach for his comm.
ZombieCleo blew up
BdoubleO100 died
” Hello-??” Scott exclaimed.
“But- we just saw her!” Tango said, sounding equally confused.
The two raised their heads back up to look at each other again for a brief second. No
communication was needed in that moment, as they both immediately broke into a run, heading up
the hill and out of the cave.
Chapter End Notes
*Casually posts what’s probably the most controversial chapter of this entire fic and
heads out to lunch*
Scott - Green
Jimmy - X
Tango - Yellow
Cleo - Green
Bdubs - Yellow
Etho - Green
Grian - Green
Scar - Yellow
Bigb - Red
Ren - Green
Martyn - Yellow
Impulse - Yellow
Pearl - Green
Joel - Green
Lizzie - Yellow
A Shot in the Dark
Chapter Summary
Scott and Tango meet back up with Cleo and Etho at Grian’s base. A mad scramble
for the enchanting table ensues.
Chapter Notes
For those of you who didn’t hear, I think it’s been confirmed that the new life series is
starting today! Let’s goooo!!
<Smajor1995> Cleo
<Smajor1995> Coords
By the time they’d reached the cave exit the sun had almost finished setting. Though it was hardly
something that Scott had noticed, as he was in the midst of staring at his comm, trying to figure out
where Cleo and Etho could have gone off to.
“They couldn’t have gone far.” He heard Tango say beside him. “They had to have just been
heading back home, right?”
Scott opened his mouth, about to agree before his comm buzzed once more.
He looked back to the screen. “Got her location.” He said quickly, showing the message to Tango.
<ZombieCleo> No coords needed
<ZombieCleo> We’re at Grian’s
“Grian’s base?” Tango questioned.

Scott knew the avian’s base wasn’t far from where the location of the cave had been. But what
business did Cleo and Etho have going there?
“What are they even doing there??” Tango asked, taking the words right out of Scott’s mouth.
“I don’t know, but I guess that’s where we’re headed.”
He saw the blaze nod in agreement, putting an eager foot forward to start running again, but before
he was able to move, Scott grabbed the edge of his sleeve, holding him in place.
“Tango?” He started, watching the other flinch slightly before turning back around.
“What?”
They had just gotten out of a really intense conversation and Scott felt it would be insensitive of
him to simply brush it off right away, even if Tango didn’t seem to mind.
He bit his lip. “So—are we just done talking about…?”
Tango eyed him for a moment, his previously frantic state visibly easing at the question. “What
more is there to say?” He spoke. “I told you everything.”
“But, you didn’t have to.” Scott stated plainly. “You seemed so… tense when you brought it up.
Why give me all the background?”
Tango sighed, speaking his next words frankly. “Would you really have stopped at just one
question?”
Scott froze. He had a point. He’d already overheard the gist of it. Tango had evidently known as
well as himself that if he didn’t tell him everything right then and there, he would have just gone
and bugged Cleo about it, or Pearl, or some other Hermit until he felt as though he had the full
story.
“No.” Scott breathed, slightly ashamed.
“Look, for obvious reasons, I wanted as little people to know about all the drama that happened on
my server as possible.” Tango said. He then rubbed at his forearm, looking awkwardly off to the
side. “So, since you apparently don’t hate me, could you maybe-?”
Scott’s eyes shot open. “Of course I won’t tell any—Who do you even take me for??” He
exclaimed defensively. Did Tango really think he was going to go and gossip all his secrets away
after everything he’d just told him??
Tango gave him a deadpanned look. Scott simply rolled his eyes. Alright, well maybe the other’s
concern was a little validated. It’s not as though he was known for his ability to not gossip.
“I won’t tell anyone.” Scott repeated. “Seriously.”
Tango perked up slightly, looking relieved. “Thank you.” He said. “That really does mean a lot to
me.”
Scott nodded. Having settled that, he made a gesture for them to start running again and soon
enough, they were off.
By running the whole way, they’d managed to make it to Grian’s place in only a few minutes.
They reached it just as the sun had set fully, the dull glow of torches in the dark signaling that the
base was right up ahead.
Moving past the trees and into the clearing, Scott was met with a sight that he could only describe
as some kind of standoff. The front lawn was dimly lit with numerous spammed torches. Past that,
Scott could see Grian’s team base, appearing almost the same as it was when they’d visited it
yesterday. A large, mostly wooden cabin tall enough to accommodate a second floor attic leading
up to a greatly elevated watchtower far above it. All things were similar, with the acception of an
unsightly crater taking up the spot where their front door should have been.
Yelling could also be heard. Having turned his head in the direction of it, Scott could see Cleo,
who had her sword drawn out—and Etho, who was currently keeping a notched arrow from flying
as he aimed his bow directly at Bigb, who likewise, was aiming his own right back at them. Next
to him, appeared to be the shadowy figures of what looked like Scar and—
Grian.
“Hey! Long time no see, G!” Tango yelled, announcing his and Scott’s arrival to the ‘standoff’
much more loudly than he’d anticipated.
Regardless, Scott rolled with it, as all eyes turned to them. “Guys, what’s going on here?” He
asked. “This all looks like, really chaotic.”
Cleo was the first to speak. “What’s going on is that we were trying to enchant some of our items
with the lapis we just mined.” She stated, eyes shifting warily between him and Grian’s group. “So
imagine our surprise when we got back to spawn and the table was nowhere to be seen.”
“And you assumed I would take it??” Scar said dramatically, conjuring up a very fake-looking
expression of hurt. “I would never!”
Etho rolled his eyes at this. “Enough with the theatrics, Scar.” He said, gesturing his bow towards
the still-smoking crater. “We know it was you. You’re hiding it. Why else would you guys
boobytrap your base with tnt?”
Grian was the one to talk that time. Although he was responding to Etho, Scott saw him facing him
and Tango the entire time. “We did that to keep people from breaking in— again. ” He
emphasized.
Everyone turned to look at them. Scott saw his teammate grin sheepishly. They both knew there
was no denying what they were trying to do yesterday. So, instead of doing so, Scott decided to
turn the conversation back around to Grian’s team instead.
“He definitely has the table.” Scott stated quickly. “We’ve seen no one else on the server with
enchanted items and Scar shot Tango with a maxed-out bow just yesterday. That’s what killed
Jimmy.”
All eyes were back on Scar.
“Okay…” He grinned guiltily. “Well that doesn’t necessarily mean that I stole it! I don’t doubt
your team was snooping through our things while you were hiding out too. Didn’t see any
enchanting tables lying around during all the time you spent there, did you?”
“You must have been keeping it on you then!” Tango argued. “Or you gave it to Grian! Or-“
“Or-“ Scott budded in, a lightbulb going off in his head. “it’s someplace we never got the chance to
check…”
He turned his head up towards the watchtower. Slowly, everyone else followed his gaze. For a
moment, the atmosphere was dead silent.
Then, without warning, Bigb shot his arrow at Cleo, and all hell broke loose.
Etho fired his own arrow right back, hitting Bigb in the chest at the same time that Cleo lunged
forward—an arrow now in her side—taking a swing at Grian with her sword. Scott watched as the
speedy avian took step after step out of the way, dodging Cleo’s attempted hits vigorously.
Scott turned to where Tango had been standing, but he wasn’t there anymore. He looked around for
him, and instead, found that the blaze had taken his own sword out and went straight for Scar.
Scott guessed his anger for him over Jimmy’s death hadn’t cooled down too much since yesterday.
He didn’t really blame him. Scar ended up stabbing him first, which allowed Tango to fight back
without breaking the rules. Not that he seemed to have cared about that, of course.
Having quickly assessed the situation, Scott figured that if this was what they were going to be
doing, then he might as well put his best effort into it. Swiftly, he summoned his own weapon and
dove head-first into the chaos. In some instances he’d feel a blade snag at his skin, or the wind of
an arrow passing by that had just barely missed him, but for the most part, he miraculously hadn’t
been taking too much damage.
At one point however, Scott noticed that Cleo was able to make it past the front lawn and was
trying to make her way up the side of the house by creating an upward stream of water with her
bucket. But she wasn’t thinking ahead, and the water that she placed ended up spilling all over the
ground. That’s when the fight really started getting hectic. All of the torches surrounding the house
got soaked, extinguishing the main source of light in the area and leaving everyone to fight in near
complete darkness, the only light source being the dim glow of the moon from behind the thick
clouds that were covering it.
The water trick hadn’t worked either way. Cleo was shot down by one of the many stray arrows
being fired haphazardly and got knocked back away from the house and into the large puddle her
water had created.
Scott tried to find the source of the water so he could pick it back up and place a torch or two down
without them going out, but the entire area was just a dark, chaotic mess. The yelling and clanging
of metal didn’t cease for any of it. If anything, the lack of visual sensory only made the noises
seem that much louder. Then, as if to emphasize that exact fact, a sudden BOOM noise went off
from across the lawn.
“Creeper!” He heard Grian yell, recognizing his voice.
Now mobs were starting to spawn because of the lack of lighting. Great. As if this whole fight
wasn’t already crazy enough.
Scott kept swinging his sword in the dark regardless, continuing to force his way forward through
the resistance of ankle-deep water, that somehow became knee-deep as he stumbled into a dip in
the ground that had filled up with it. And maybe it was some parts skill, or maybe it was just
entirely dumb luck, but somehow, he found himself stumbling into a wall face-first, the loud noises
now seeming a lot farther away from him than they were before.
Was he… Inside the house? Had he walked right through the fight completely and past the crater at
the front? Was that what that dip in the ground was?
Scott felt around, hands suddenly finding a familiar texture in the shape and pattern of horizontal
rods.
A ladder.
Without thinking, he lifted a foot up on to what he hoped was one of the rungs and began pulling
himself up, scaling it until he felt his head hit an even more familiar trap door. He slapped a hand
up to the surface of it blindly and pushed upward, throwing it open only to be hit in the face by a
blindingly bright light.
Lucky for him, the noises now sounded even farther away, so it was likely that no one had noticed
that he’d gotten past them. Unless of course, someone was creepily sneaking up from behind him
in the dark at this exact moment.
Scott felt a chill run down his spine. He tried not to think about that.
He pulled the rest of his body up through the ceiling entrance, squinting at the sudden brightness
before eventually managing to adjust to it. He then quietly closed the trapdoor under him.
Hopefully, everyone was still unaware that he had made it this far.
Making his way to the second half of the ladder situated the attic, Scott began his climb once more,
reaching the second trapdoor above the roof and pushing through it into more darkness.
From there, Scott just continued climbing. Though for a much longer time than he’d anticipated, he
continued to run into nothing. He didn’t remember the watchtower being this tall. Perhaps the
darkness was warping his sense of distance? Hesitantly, Scott took a break, freeing one of his
hands off the ladder rungs. He might not be able to carry a torch while he climbed, but for a
moment, he hoped he could shed some light on where he was in the climbing process.
Similar to Cleo’s mistake, he wasn’t thinking very far ahead, as the moment he summoned the
torch from his inventory it shone as bright as a beacon in the void.
Scott nearly dropped it as he looked below him. Everyone still on the ground had stopped their
fighting momentarily and were now looking up at him. Apparently he was right. They hadn’t, in
fact, noticed he’d left.
Until now.
“Up there!” Bigb yelled. And before Scott could process the words, several arrows were suddenly
flying straight at him. In the amount of time he had, Scott could do nothing other than shield
himself with his free arm, flinching after feeling one stab through his shoulder, though he tried his
best to keep hold of the ladder.
Luckily, the other’s missed him completely. Scott looked up, seeing that the platform he was
climbing towards was actually only a few more rungs away. He felt a surge of determination shoot
through him, certain that he’d be able to reach the entrance to the platform before Grian’s team had
time to reload and fire any more arrows at him.
Two rungs left, one rung—

Scott was able to make it, throwing the third and final trapdoor open right as another barrage of
arrows flew past his legs.
Slamming the door shut under him, Scott rolled on to his back, treasuring the sudden peacefulness
as he took in heavy breaths of air. The lighting in this build, though much softer, still gave off
enough brightness for Scott to at least see his own hand in front of his face. He knew he didn’t
have much time. Cleo, Etho, and Tango were probably trying to hold off Grian’s team at the
moment as they fought to make their way up the ladder themselves. Knowing this, he rested for
only a moment longer before rolling back onto his front, picking himself up, and getting to work.
The top of the tower had no roof to it, no tall walls either for that matter. Just a flat platform filled
with a series of large and small chests, furnaces, and scattered items. In other words, it’s structure
looked much like the tower at the Jellie panda sanctuary that Grian, Scar, Jimmy, and Tango had
been stranded on during the last game. The one where Tango and Jimmy had lost their second life.
Scott leaned his head ever so slightly over the edge, peering down at the chaos below him. So, this
was apparently what it felt like to be on the opposite end of all that conflict.
It was a little terrifying, if he was being honest.
Scott quickly shook the thought out of his head and went back to rummaging, opening chests
frantically and turning over everything he could get his hands on. Most of what he came across
seemed to have just been random items with absolutely no pattern of organization to the system of
storage at all. He figured it must have been Grian who came up here most often.
Despite the fact that there were a handful of valuable things lingering around, Scott still wasted no
time in grabbing them for himself. Cleo’s team needed their help and they were there for one
reason and one reason only and if he could just grab the enchanting table and get the hell out of
there without anyone having to lose any more lives, that would be a miracle in and of itself-
He paused, stopping his search for just a moment to stare at a particular item that caught his eye.
It was a horn.
Almost instantly, Scott thought back to Tango and what they’d been talking about earlier.
“I really wish I had a horn right now.”
“If I ever get rammed by a goat, I’ll let you know.”
Well… He may not have been rammed by a goat, but this was close enough. More convenient, if
anything.
Maybe stopping to grab just this one thing wouldn’t be that big of a deal.
Scott stored the horn away, swiftly moving on after that sidetrack as he tried to make up for lost
time. Soon enough, he was left with only one final chest to look through. Without hesitating, he
grabbed at the lid and threw it open, digging through everything swiftly—paper, wood planks,
some gold—
There it was. A small, light-brown book lined with gold edges that any player would recognize.
Scott grabbed it, watching as it glowed bright white for a second before reappearing in its normal
size the moment it was fully pulled out of the chest.
The enchanting table.
He knew it! They had kept it up here!!
Scott wasted no time breaking the table once more and storing it in his inventory. Immediately
after, he made his way back over to the trap door on the floor, ready to pry it back open and climb
his way back down the ladder before the door suddenly swung open on its own.
Scott hesitated in surprise as Grian stuck his head through the opening. He watched the avian turn
around to look at him, then to the open chest he’d just snatched the table from—then back at him.
“On no you don’t-!” Grian yelled, quickly scrambling onto the platform and running straight
forward. In an instant, Scott went into panic mode, his mind thinking as quickly as it could in that
moment of any possible way out. He was cornered. He could try getting past Grian and back
towards the ladder at the expense of taking some damage—but he was low, and the last time he’d
underestimated just how much damage these enchanted weapons were capable of dealing, they’d
lost Jimmy. Not to mention there was no guarantee that Scar and/or Bigb weren’t already making
their way up the ladder as well. He could try and fight back…? See problem ‘ A ’. He could try to
mlg! But—he still hadn’t refilled his water bucket since throwing it on Tango. Damn it! Him and
his stupid tired forgetfulness!
Wait—Cleo’s water. The one she had placed while trying to scale the house that ended up
drenching all the torches. That had to still be there, right?
Scott didn’t have much time to make a decision. Heart racing, he turned around, missing the tip of
Grian’s sword by a hair and began sprinting towards the edge of the platform, fully ready to leap
into an inky black pool of uncertain distance where he couldn’t so much as see the ground, leaving
everything up to chance.
Scott crossed his fingers, praying there’d still be water when he landed.
He jumped off.
He fell for what felt like forever, all the worst possible scenarios flashing through his head. Any
moment now he was going to be met with the hard, solid ground and he’d die and all this would
have been for nothing-
Except, he wouldn’t die. It’d be Tango who would pay the price for his gamble. Tango…
Scott had forgotten about the rules yet again.
He suddenly wished he’d just stayed and fought instead.
SPLASH!
All at once, everything sped up again. Scott let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding, sighing
in complete relief right before the realization of the situation he was in came crashing back down
on him. He needed to go. Now.
Scott put a hand to the ground and pushed himself back up on his feet. He felt the familiar
resistance of water keep him from moving forward too quickly. It only took a short while after
Scott had managed to stand fully upright for him to nearly stumble back downwards as his hands
flung around blindly in the darkness. But before that could happen, he suddenly felt a hand reach
out for his own, squeezing it somewhat comfortingly. The hand felt calloused, warm.
Tango.
He squeezed it back and before he knew it, Tango had pulled him out of the water and the both of
them were now running from the cabin, from Grian’s team. Running for their lives.
Scott never let go. Somehow, Tango seemed to know exactly where they were going, able to
navigate the darkness without running into anything. Scott let him lead the way, trusting the other
to guide him safely.
They ran deeper into the woods, the loud noises of yelling thankfully growing more and more
distant with every second that passed. After a few minutes, the noises had stopped completely. A
little while after that, and Tango seemed to feel as though it was safe enough for them to stop.
Without warning, the blaze stopped running immediately, leaving Scott, who was still in a mild
haze, to crash into the side of him. Neither of them seemed to have expected the other’s sudden
action, as they both tumbled down into the grass, yelping loudly in a mess of tangled limbs.
Scott let out a groan as he tried to push himself back up. But instead of feeling grass under his palm
like he’d expected, he felt a piece of cloth. A warm one.
He’d fallen directly on top of Tango.
Gently, he continued leveraging himself until he was on his elbows and knees. That was when he
felt something… Different.
It was the sensation of warm breath against his lips. Scott’s breathing hitched as something
suddenly clicked in his mind.
Just how close was he to Tango’s face right now?

Quickly, Scott scrambled to get back up, only to slip and fall once more in his haste, face crashing
directly into what felt like the other’s chest. He heard Tango make a sputtering noise under him
before Scott finally opted instead to simply roll off to the side and on to his back. Trying
desperately to catch his breath once more from all the running. He felt exhausted, awkward, but
more than anything, he just felt downright embarrassed.
Then, Tango did something that, in his opinion, made things so much worse.
He started laughing.
It began as a hesitant chuckle, sounding as though the blaze was trying his best to stifle the noises,
but it didn’t take very long at all for it to turn into full blown belly laughs.
“It’s not funny!” Scott yelled, still lying on his back as he lazily smacked the other across his
stomach. Though this only seemed to make him laugh harder. “It’s not—“ He insisted, but was
unable to hold a straight face as the laughing continued. Suddenly, Scott found himself trying to
keep his own laughter down as well, to no avail.
He absolutely hated how Tango apparently had the most stupidly contagious laughter.
It was official. They were both hysterical. They had to have been sprinting for at least a kilometer
after just narrowly escaping death and were now laughing alone on their backs in the dark.
In the dark… Scott quickly realized that they weren’t safe just yet. Then, as if his immediate fears
had manifested into reality, he suddenly heard a hissing noise coming from off to the side.
“Shoot-! Spider!” Tango yelled, having clearly noticed the sound as well. Scott then heard what
sounded like him standing back up and swinging a weapon at the mob. Two more loud hissing
noises sounding off before they were in silence once more.
Slowly, Scott managed to stand back up as well just as he noticed Tango taking a lit torch out of his
inventory. He held it in his off hand, and with the area finally lit somewhat, Scott was now able to
see him clearly without the cover of darkness obstructing his view. He looked back at Scott,
blotches of dirt and soot on his face framing a crooked smile he’d been holding.
Slowly, unthinkingly, Scott smiled back.

“Sorry I stopped suddenly.” Tango spoke, starting up his walk once more. “I just noticed that we
were getting close to a ravine.”
Scott nodded his head slowly, going right back to following him as they walked side-by-side.
“Did Cleo and Etho make it out alright?” He asked casually.
“Well, I know for sure they got out.” Tango replied. “We kind of got separated while we were
retreating, but judging by the fact that neither of our comms have buzzed with any death messages,
I’d say we’re all in the clear.”
Scott let out a small sigh, relieved.
“I have to say, it’s a freakin miracle no one died in all that.” Tango added.
“Agreed.”
The blaze turned to look at him. “You still have the table though, right? Grian didn’t snatch it back
or anything?”
Scott grinned, reappearing the book into his hand and holding it up for Tango to see. “Of course I
do.”
Tango’s face lit up instantly. “ Yessss!! ” He cheered, pumping his other fist up. “Hah, you’re
awesome dude, seriously.” He continued, making Scott grin wider. “You looked so badass up there
too. I thought for sure that one arrow was going to knock you off the ladder completely, but nope-
!”
He let Tango ramble on about the fight for another minute or two, surprised at how much he was
actually enjoying the praise he was getting. Although upon hearing most of the details, Scott
couldn’t help but question how exactly Tango was able to see all of this happening in the first
place. He thought back to how the blaze was able to navigate the forest in the dark without running
into anything, how he took down a mob without taking any damage himself, how he knew Grian
had gone after him. Eventually, Scott just had to ask.
“How were you able to see where the spider was?” He questioned the other skeptically.
He noticed Tango flinch slightly before shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly. “Dunno.” He
replied. “Just aimed in the direction of where all the hissing was coming from.”
“Mhmm…” Scott hummed, unbelieving. “And how about when we were running away? How
were you able to see where we were going? How did you know we were approaching a ravine?”
Tango laughed awkwardly. “Lucky guess?” He claimed, his expression fully giving away that he
didn’t believe his own lie either.
Scott continued glaring at him, hoping that the dim lighting of the torch was only making his
expression more intimidating.
Inevitably, something seemed to give; he saw Tango let out an annoyed groan before opening his
mouth again to speak.
“Fine.” He said. “You got me. I can kind of, sort of, see in the dark…?”
Scott quirked a brow, grinning. After everything he’d learned about Tango this far, this didn’t seem
to surprise him nearly as much as everything else had. To that extent, he still wasn’t one to brush it
off.
“Tango…” He started. “Isn’t that kind of, you know—cheating?”
He saw Tango roll his eyes, grinning right back. “First off, it’s not like I can turn it off.” He stated
plainly. Scott figured that was a fair point. “And second, is it really so bad to cheat if I’m using it
against Grian?”
“Hmmm…” Scott smirked. “I guess we could make an acception just for him.” He agreed. And
much to his surprise, Tango laughed.
But then, another realization hit him. If Tango could see in the dark, then that meant he was able to
see him that entire time he’d been lying on top of him, trying to get up—
—leaning in so closely he could feel the other’s breathing.
Without warning, Scott felt his face start to heat up, cheeks likely gaining a pale tint of pink on
them as he thought over every little thing that had happened between them in the dark. Tango had
been able to see his panicked facial expressions, along with anything else, up close and clear as
day.
No wonder he was laughing afterwards.
“Okay.” Scott stated firmly. “I’d rather not be literally kept in the dark about all the abnormal traits
you have, if that’s alright.”
He heard Tango breath out another laugh. “Seriously dude? I tell you all about my personality last
night, I let you in on all the Hermitcraft drama no more than thirty minutes ago, and now you want
to know more about my personal abilities?” The blaze grinned, eyeing Scott cheekily. “You must
be really obsessed with me, huh?”
Scott gave the other a light shove, which only got him chuckling again.
“Well I don’t remember much about what you told me last night anyway.” Scott insisted. Though
that was a lie. He remembered most of it at this point, safe for what might have been an hour or so
of blank space near the end where he’d practically been slipping in and out of consciousness. “I
just don’t want to be caught off guard by anything, alright? I think I’m being pretty reasonable
here.”
Tango let out a dramatic groan before inevitably giving in. “Alright, lemme think…” He appeared
to scan the ground with his eyes for a second before looking back at Scott. “I’m pretty sensitive to
loud noises. So there’s that.” He spoke, still wearing a contemplating look. “If I’m being honest, I
also get really freaked out around rain and large bodies of water. Oh! And I can breath out smoke
sometimes.”
Scott nodded along. “That all?”

“No. Actually, there’s a really important one too that’s kind of a big secret.” Tango said, his face
noticeably developing a dramatic look of dread. Scott leaned in, waiting somewhat eagerly for his
response.
“…I can fly.”
They both paused to look at each other, Tango’s worried expression unchanging.
Scott narrowed his eyes. “You’re just messing with me now, aren’t you?”
Almost instantly, the other’s facade broke. He let out another short laugh. “Aw man—nothing gets
past you, does it?”
Scott rolled his eyes, smirking. “Well, maybe you just suck at lying. Ever consider that?”
Tango nudged him lightly. “Hey, don’t sell yourself short like that. You’re really sharp when you
want to be.”
Scott frowned. Once again, Tango was being nice to him. And while it did still feel somewhat odd,
it’s not as though this development had come out of nowhere. All things considered, it was clear to
him now that the blaze had been putting on a front for the first half of the game, displaying what
seemed to be the more agressive side of his personality. Whether that front had been put up
because Tango felt threatened by his presence around Jimmy considering their previous
relationship, or possibly that he just didn’t like him from the beginning, it was clear now that it was
gone completely. More or less, making this version of Tango the default one. The true Tango.
Knowing that, Scott wasn’t uncomfortable with how Tango was acting now. He wasn’t even
uncomfortable with the fact that they’d gotten to know each other so personally. No, what really
bothered him, was how much he was starting to like it.
How much he was starting to like him.
He shouldn’t be liking him. They shouldn’t be friends. They never could, because when everything
was said and done—and surely, a lot had been said between them these past couple days—but at
the end of the day, Tango was still the person who got between him and Jimmy. He was the reason
they weren’t together anymore. And sure, maybe Tango really was a decent person. Maybe he
didn’t deserve what happened to him. Hell, maybe he really did love Jimmy, as much as knowing
that felt like a knife to the heart, after everything that Tango had told him, Scott couldn’t deny that
it was probably true. But once again, all that changed nothing. What happened could not be
undone.
They could never really be friends. As much as that label made sense for them. As perfectly fitting
as it sounded. Maybe if things had been different, maybe in some other timeline…
At the very least however, Tango did make one hell of a partner. If Scott were being honest, he was
starting to find the other to be… well, a little incredible. Everything new he learned about him was
like a world-altering surprise, and the more time he spent with Tango since Jimmy’s death, the less
being in this game felt like a chore or a burden. Maybe not so much the game, even, but just
existing in general was starting to feel a lot more fun and interesting, as if he were experiencing
everything he’d gotten so accustomed to doing for the first time again.
Not that he’d ever say all that out loud, of course.
Scott swallowed a lump in his throat. “I’m- I’m going to let Cleo know we got the table.” He said,
trying to sidetrack the conversation as he reached for his comm.
“Oh, don’t worry about that.” Tango said. “Her and Etho already know.”
Scott paused. “Really?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. “How?”
Tango had that guilty look on his face again. Although this time, it looked more real. “Well—they
both kind of already knew I could see everything that was going on.” He admitted. Once again,
Scott wasn’t too surprised. This was the second time tonight he found out something about Tango
that apparently only the Hermits knew.
“So,” Tango went on. “I was able to yell it to them real quick when I saw you jumping down,
assumed you’d snatched the table. That’s actually how we all knew when to start retreating.”
Scott hummed, looking forward again. “I see.”
Tango nudged him again. “I saw too.”

Scott nudged him back, smirking. “Very funny.”
They were almost back at the cabin at that point. If there was anything that Scott had been
worrying about just then, for some reason, he suddenly couldn’t remember it anymore.
Angel and Demon
Chapter Summary
Scott and Tango have another late-night conversation. They make some headway in
talking about their history together
Chapter Notes
Hey y’all! Sorry to do this, but a bunch of school deadlines are coming up for me, so
the next chapter might be delayed for anywhere between two weeks to a month and a
half (though hopefully not the max). Got a lot of stuff on my plate rn so I’m just giving
a heads up. Consider it a hiatus. But please know that I am 100% eager and committed
to finishing this fic and will try to get back on the normal posting schedule as soon as I
can. I’ll still make some time to respond to all the comments as well, if at a bit more of
a delayed pace than usual
Thank you for your patience, and I hope to see you again soon!
“I think we should sleep in shifts.” Scott said openly as him and his teammate were sorting away
their gear. It was getting late. Much too late for Tango’s comfort apparently, considering how
much he insisted they try to fall asleep early this time. On one end, Scott found it reasonable.
They’d have to get up early and meet back up with Cleo’s team to figure out what they were going
to do with the enchanter. Plus it’d be good to get back on a normal schedule, as they did end up
sleeping through most of the day. On the other end however, Scott knew he wasn’t going to be
falling asleep anytime soon. Because really, what else should he expect at this point?
“Nice joke. You’re really funny Scott.” Tango stated plainly from across the room. He was still in
the middle of putting his gear away in one of the hidden chests he’d apparently made. Scott would
have been frustrated over him disorganizing everything if he didn’t think it was actually a good
idea. Not to mention, it was also a safer place to hide the table for the time being.
“You know I’m being serious.” Scott replied, rolling his eyes. “Come on, you know I’m not going
to fall asleep right away anyway. How about I stay up the first half of the night, and you do the
second half?”
Tango shut one of the chests, now walking over to him. “I still hate that idea just as much as I did
ten seconds ago.”
He watched as Tango took a seat on the edge of the bed next to him, as if it were the most normal
thing in the world. And for the most part, at this point, it actually was.
“You really think Scar and Grian are going to let this one go?” Scott argued back. “They could
have been right on our tails. Or on their way to kill us right now! I mean, we did kill their teammate
twice and now we have the enchanter.”
He saw the other make a face, seeming to consider that idea before relaxing slightly. “Okay.” He
breathed. “I can kind of see your point.” He turned to look out the window. Scott followed his gaze.
“When the moon’s halfway through the sky, I don’t care how badly you want to keep denying
yourself rest, you wake me up, understand?”
Scott smirked, nodding his head. “Of course.”
Though, as it turned out, that whole plan was easier said than done.
Tonight felt much different than the previous one. It was quieter, calmer. All the torches had been
blown out and rather than hearing the sound of laughter and chatter from his partner, all Scott could
make out was the fading noise of deep breathing and the occasional toss, turn, or rustle of sheets.
He’d been leaning his back up against the wall that his bed lined up with, the soft glow of his
comm lighting up his face as he aimlessly scrolled through earlier messages. If Scott were being
honest, he hadn’t exactly thought this part through. Part of the reason for his insistence upon
staying up was the truth, he was indeed worried about someone from Grian’s team coming after
them while they were sleeping. But some part of him also just wanted another excuse not to lay in
silence with his thoughts again. All the good that was doing him now though; there was nothing
here to distract him other than checking his comm repeatedly and waiting for the moon to move.
He wondered if anyone else was awake at this hour. He couldn’t have been the only one, right?
Maybe it was possible that someone from Cleo’s team was up. After what happened today, he
wouldn’t blame them if they were a bit on edge as well.
Tiredly, thoughtlessly, Scott sent out a quick message into the chat. He didn’t expect to get a
response, but it was worth a shot. Anyone who was sleeping would probably have their comm
silenced anyway, so it’s not like he’d be waking anyone.
<Smajor1995> Anyone up?
He waited.
<ZombieCleo> Not this again
<ZombieCleo> Scott
<ZombieCleo> Go to sleep!!
Scott stifled a laugh. Just his luck he ended up getting Cleo.
<Smajor1995> Um… hypocritical much?
<Smajor1995> What are YOU doing up huh?
<ZombieCleo> I’m in the nether building something important, actually
<ZombieCleo> Now you
Scott rolled his eyes, grinning to himself.
<Smajor1995> I’m making sure no one breaks into my base and steals back the enchanting table
<Smajor1995> You’re welcome btw
<ZombieCleo> Right
<ZombieCleo> Thank you for that, honestly

<ZombieCleo> Idk if we would have beaten them if you and Tango hadn’t shown up
Scott lowered his upper body and rested on his side, one elbow against the bed as his other arm
held the device. He couldn’t help but feel a tad gleeful recalling the events. They did do pretty
well.
<ZombieCleo> Also, so long as we’re both up, I think we ought to talk about that insane mlg you
did
Huh?
<ZombieCleo> That was literally amazing!
<ZombieCleo> Heard the splash you made. Wish I could have seen it for myself though :(
<ZombieCleo> But the fact that you managed to do it in the dark makes it even more impressive!
Ah, that made sense. She thought he’d thrown some water down on his own like he’d originally
planned to.
Scott stretched his arm out again, typing back.
<Smajor1995> As much as I’d love to take credit for nailing a move like that, that’s not what
happened
<Smajor1995> I honestly just tried to aim for the water you spilled earlier
<Smajor1995> Ended up saving me in the long run. So I ought to thank you for that
<ZombieCleo> Um… you sure about that?

<ZombieCleo> Cause the water source got blocked off again about halfway through the fight
Scott paused, sitting up once more. What was Cleo talking about?
<Smajor1995> Wait
<Smajor1995> What?
<ZombieCleo> Yeah?
<ZombieCleo> Think it was someone on Grian’s team who managed to pick it back up at some
point
<ZombieCleo> Either that or it was blocked off, like I said
<ZombieCleo> All I know is that the ground was fully dry again right before Grian’s team started
pulling back
That wasn’t possible. Was Cleo just messing with him? Possibly, though this seemed like an odd
and very specific thing to kid about.
Scott furrowed his brows. If he were to take what she said as true and assume that the water only
just thinned out completely right before he fell, then it was still possible that he might have just
gotten lucky and hit it just in time. But… no, the water he landed in wasn’t in the process of drying
up, it was somewhere between ankle and knee-deep. As if it had just been put down in that
moment.
Scott suddenly remembered what Tango had said about the fight. He was keeping an eye on him
while he helped Cleo and Etho hold back Grian’s team. He was aware of the exact moment when
he jumped and made sure everyone else knew that he’d gotten what they came for. He was
conveniently right there to pull him out of the water afterwards.
Scott tucked his legs in, staring hard at the screen as he typed.
<Smajor1995> Cleo
<Smajor1995> Did Tango place more water under me right as he saw me jump?
There was some silence on Cleo’s end. Then he remembered, Tango wasn’t the most keen on
telling non-Hermits that he could see in the dark. It would make sense for Cleo to want to respect
that.
<Smajor1995> Don’t worry
<Smajor1995> He told me about the eye thing already
<Smajor1995> About everything, actually
<Smajor1995> None of it really surprises me much if I’m being honest
“Eye thing” seemed like a good enough description for it. Cleo always was good at picking up his
hidden messages.
<ZombieCleo> Ah
<ZombieCleo> Gotcha ;)
Scott smiled. Just as he’d expected.
<ZombieCleo> In that case, yeah
<ZombieCleo> Now that you’ve got me thinking about it, he probably did
<Smajor1995> That’s literally insane
<ZombieCleo> What can I say? Tango’s full of surprises
<Smajor1995> Yeah, I think I’ve picked up on that by now
<ZombieCleo> How were things going with him btw?
This time, Scott was the one to freeze up. Tango had just let him in on everything that happened on
Hermitcraft. Cleo knew this. But it wasn’t just the revealed secrets that changed his attitude
towards Tango, no, it had been the the understandings they’d had, the bonding, the
communication… Starting the game off, he could have probably said he hated Tango in
confidence. But before last night, he may not have been so certain of that. Though back then, at
least he was still certain that he hated not hating him.
But now, he might not even be sure of that either…
<Smajor1995> I can tell you all about that tomorrow
Between them, that was code for “I’d rather not say all the details in a public chat”.
<ZombieCleo> Understood
Cleo knew him so well.
<ZombieCleo> You’d better sleep at least a little tonight
<Smajor1995> I’ll see what I can do
No promises, Cleo.
<ZombieCleo> I mean it Scott!
<Smajor1995> Suuuuure
<ZombieCleo> SCOTT!
He continued to hold in his laughter. Cleo really wasn’t going to let this one go, was she? Though
just as he was typing up yet another annoyingly cryptic response, Scott heard some much louder
rustling coming from Tango’s end of the room, followed by the shuffling of feet and a sudden soft
light filling the room.
He turned his gaze up just as Tango had made his way over to him. He’d lit just one of the torches
on the wall, allowing Scott a near minimum amount of visibility. They looked at each other for a
moment, Tango holding a sleepily soft smile as he quietly waved at Scott.
<Smajor1995> Tango woke up just now
<Smajor1995> Gotta go
<Smajor1995> Bye :)
Well, at least now he had a valid excuse not to promise Cleo anything. He turned his comm off,
throwing it across the bed just as Tango moved to sit down next to him.
“Hey.”
“Hey.” Scott said.
“I uh… I can’t sleep.” Tango admitted, rubbing the back of his head. Had he not been asleep this
entire time?
“Why’s that?” Scott asked.
“I don’t know.” Tango answered “Maybe it’s just my broken sleep cycle?” He let out a light laugh,
pausing quietly for a moment. “I can cover the rest of your shift.”
Scott was quick to shake his head at that. “Yeah, no, I don’t think so.”
Tango groaned. “Really, I’m not sleeping either way.”
Oh wow. Was he really going to pull that card on him? Didn’t he know he invented that excuse?
“Good. Cause neither am I.”
Tango glared at him, he seemed to have expected that response. “Scott, seriously, just go to sleep-“
“-Did you throw water under me right as I was landing?” Scot stated quickly.
He saw the other’s eyes widen at the question. That seemed like a good enough answer to him.
“Oh my god- you did, didn’t you?” Scott laughed, putting a hand to Tango’s shoulder. “I would
have been so screwed if you hadn’t done that.”
“More like I would have.” Tango muttered.
Scott let his laughter die down, breathing in deeply. “You’re right. He stated. “Thanks for saving
both of us.”
He pulled his hand off, now making frantic motions with both of them, his overall complexion
beaming brightly. “I mean- like- you think that what I did was cool? You literally saw me falling,
alerted everyone that I had the table, took out a bucket, predicted exactly where I was going to land,
and threw water under me all within the time it took me to reach the ground!”
If Scott was tired before, he felt very awake right now.
“Seriously! That’s just so-! ”
He paused, Tango didn’t seem as excited as he was. Though that did make some sense, he must
have still been tired, after all. Regardless however, he still looked more uncomfortable than he did
restless. He’d been looking away from him entirely, in fact. Like he was waiting for Scott to calm
down so that he could immediately change the subject.
Scott quieted, his bright smile slowly fading. “Why didn’t you say anything?” He asked, voice now
much calmer.
Tango shrugged, still looking to the side. “Guess I forgot. Not like it mattered much if you did
know. Everything you did was already impressive, with or without my help.”
Scott frowned. “Still could have said something…” He muttered, his gaze on the other only
intensifying. “Why not even bring it up?”
The blaze stayed silent.
“Hey, you tell me I’m bad at fooling people? Well you’re even worse at it.” Scott urged. “I’m not
upset over it or anything, I’m just wondering, why?”
Tango finally looked at him, worried expression unchanging as he bit his lip. “I was scared that if I
brought it up, it’d remind you of Double Life again.“
Scott blinked. “Remind me… how?”
Tango sighed. “Well, I mean- that whole stunt really parallels one of the ‘trust tests’ you had
everyone do back on your Relationship Ranch, remember?”
It took Scott a second for him to make the connection, but when he did, his eyes shot open.
“Oh…” He breathed, his tone surprisingly still compared to the reaction he had given.
“See? I shouldn’t have said anything-“
“No.” Scott shook his head, coming back to the present moment. “No, you- it’s fine.”
Well, it wasn’t completely fine, but he could still understand the hesitancy. He’d burned down a
house simply because it reminded him of Third Life. Well, maybe not Third Life per say, but more
so a time when he was happier. Though it was still more or less the same.
Had Tango really felt the need to keep his mouth shut about something so extraordinary? Did he
think he was going to blow up over it like he did the last time?
Unfortunately, that seemed to be the case. Though maybe if that were true, then he should let
Tango know that he was wrong. Convince him that he didn’t need to constantly be worrying about
whether or not some off-topic event was going to make him snap. It was true that it hurt
sometimes, being reminded of the past. But it’s not as though he wanted his teammate living in
constant fear over if he was going to say something wrong around him. He did not hate the guy,
after all.
Besides, Tango had opened up to him about his past—very much so, in fact. Maybe it was time
that Scott tried to embrace his. It’s not as though distracting himself to keep from thinking about it
was making him any happier, anyway.
“It’s—actually kind of funny.” Scott said, slowly starting up the conversation again.
“What is?” Tango asked.
“Well, you and Jimmy did fail that exercise, but we ended up passing it. Not to mention the stakes
were much higher, and I didn’t even have any idea that you’d planned on doing what you did.”
Tango stared at him blankly, before seeming to relax as he let out a small laugh. Scott was glad
that he’d managed to defuse some of the tension successfully. “Guess that must mean we trust each
other more.” The blaze said, grinning. “I mean, that’s what I’ve deduced anyway. Using your
flawless logic, of course.”
Scott smiled, waving a hand nonchalantly. “That logic was pretty flawed, I’ll admit. It was more
for fun, anyway. A person’s ability to throw water under someone else in time doesn’t
automatically make them trustworthy.
Tango hummed. “Then—what does?”
Scott paused again, giving the question a genuine amount of thought before responding.
“For me? I’d say… being able to be yourself, exactly as you are around them without worrying
about being judged.”
Scott watched Tango’s eyes shift, softening into a gloomy expression. Instantly, he started
questioning if his answer hit a bit too close to home for him, remembering how he’d clearly trusted
his ex boyfriend enough to be himself around him. All the good that ended up doing.
“Now there’s something I can agree with.” Tango spoke quietly, surprising him.
Scott watched the blaze lean his back against the wall, relaxing it just as he had. Something told
him that they were both settling in for yet another long night.
“So I take it neither of us are sleeping again?” Scott asked bluntly.
“It seems so…”
He groaned, mildly frustrated, not at Tango specifically, but more so at both of them and their
equal stubbornness. “Could you honestly not fall asleep at all?”
Tango turned his head, nodding tiredly.
“And you really don’t know why?”

He looked back down, frowning. “Guess I just feel… wrong?”
Scott stared at him, confused. “You feel upset?” He moved in closer, nearly closing the gap on the
bed between them. He watched as Tango just sat there, refusing eye contact. He was silent for a
while, but eventually responded with a short hum. “Something like that, yeah…”
Could Tango have been upset over Jimmy? Was he starting to miss him even more?
Scott laughed sadly, mutually upset over the thought of missing him as well. “I guess I can
understand that.” He replied honestly. “Still though, you’d rather stay up and have an awkward
conversation with me than lie in a bed and do nothing?”
Tango finally turned to him again, looking confused. “Who said I find this awkward?”
The air went dead around them. The silence almost dramatic.
“I like talking to you.” Tango finished, every word sounding just as sincere as the last.
Scott flinched, his eyes widening.
Third surprise of the night.
“Well, maybe it is a little awkward now that you’ve addressed it.” Tango continued, fiddling with
the hem of his shirt. “What? Have you been finding it awkward?”
Scott rolled his eyes. “Well, I don’t know, Tango. I mean, to put it in your own words, you did steal
my boyfriend.”
God, it was just as unnerving for him to say it as it was when he first heard it. But it needed to be
said. He was going to address the elephant in the room if it killed him.
“…Do you think we should talk about that?” Tango asked.

Scott gripped at the sheets he was sitting on, hoping that he hadn’t given away how tense he was.
“Do you?”
He saw the blaze make a face, opening his mouth to say something but failing to get any words
out.
“Calm down.” Scott jabbed. “I’m not gonna bite you if you answer wrong.”
“Oh, so there is a wrong answer then?” Tango asked mockingly.
Scott didn’t respond to that, simply opting to glare at the other instead.
Tango sighed defeatedly, taking a shot at the question once more. “I think… Maybe we could start
by actually acknowledging it.”
There it was. Tango was up for talking about it, for putting it all out in the open. Was this what he
wanted? Was embracing the history they had with each other really the best option here?
Well, Scott figured that worst case, all it would do was make him go back to hating Tango like he
did before.
But why did that just seem like a bad thing now?
This wasn’t going to change anything. Jimmy had still chosen Tango; he wasn’t getting him back.
But as impossible as it seemed after so many months, maybe embracing the past could help him
move on. Maybe that would be the best case scenario.
Scott exhaled slowly. He’d made a decision. “I think that’s a good way to start too.” He said
calmly.
Scott looked up at Tango. He didn’t seem any less restless than he did before, and this
conversation certainly wasn’t helping with that.
Alright. Fine. If this was really something they were going to start doing, then perhaps it would be
easier for the both of them if they started small.
There was actually a certain question that Scott had been holding on to in the back of his mind.
One that irked him for a number of reasons.
“Can I ask you something?” Scott uttered nervously, ending the silence between them. “About
Jimmy?”
Tango shrugged. “If it’s something I know he’d be okay with me talking about, then sure.”
Scott bit his lip, tightening his grip on the bedsheets. “Why ‘ Angel?’ ”
Understandably, Tango eyed him, confused. “Huh?”
“Why is that your pet name for him?” Scott rephrased. “I mean, it’s pretty cute in a general sense,
but with Jimmy specifically it’s like—really? That’s the best you could come up with?”
“Uh…” The blaze stared at him blankly.
“Don’t tell me you took one look at his wings and decided on that one. Please.”
Tango’s previously gloomy expression seemed to crumple noticeably at that. Quickly, he put his
head in his hands, blushing. “You can’t seriously be asking that…”
Scott laughed. “Am I wrong?”
Tango shot his head back up. “You are!” He said firmly, before his expression gradually softened.
“Okay- well, maybe you’re a little right. Part of it was cause of his wings.”
“Mhmmm…” Scott hummed sarcastically.

“But, when I call him that, I also meant it more in the sense that he’s my protector. Or—the person
who saved me.”
Almost instantly, Scott dropped the cheeky attitude. Paying even more attention now.
“I really just—I feel relaxed around him. Kind of like how you said trusting someone is suppose to
feel like.“
The blaze stopped suddenly, seemingly checking the other for any signs of discomfort at what he
was saying. Scott made a light nodding gesture with his head, giving him the ‘okay’ to continue.
“When I’m with him, I feel calm, warm, grounded, something I rarely felt regularly before then.
Kind of like- like he’s keeping me safe.”
He paused again for a second.
Scott just continued looking at him, a familiar warmth blooming in his chest upon hearing the
other describe his ex. It was almost painfully nostalgic to him. But at the same time, comforting.
“That’s a little ironic considering what happened after.” Scott muttered, trying to hide how he was
really feeling.
“Mmm. Maybe.” Tango breathed. “But really, even without all those feelings, I do think the name
still fits since I’m kind of more like—“
He saw the other swallow again, like he was trying to get rid of a lump in his throat.
“Like a demon.” Tango followed. “Out of the both of us, anyway.”
Scott—liked that second explanation a little less, admittedly.
“What?” He pressed cautiously. “Cause of your fire? Right?” As in the comparison was purely on
a physical level and not an internalized personality-based one?
Silence.
“…Yeah.” Tango whispered. “Cause of the fire.”
Scott got the feeling that that comparison was not, in fact, “cause of the fire.”
They continued sitting there again, calmly thinking over everything that had been exchanged.
“I still think it’s a lazy nickname.” Scott stated, trying to lighten the mood once more.
Tango looked at him, offended. “Wha-? Alright- fine then! What did you call him?”
It wasn’t meant to be a serious question. Tango likely just wanted a chance to poke fun right back
at him for whatever his nickname for Jimmy might have been. Scott knew this.
Still, the question had hit a little too hard for him to answer right away. For him, it was too
personal, too much.
Scott froze, saying nothing, much to the other’s confusion.
Tango hadn’t realized he’d overstepped until Scott had to physically turn away from him, taking in
a shaky breath as he lifted a hand to cover his mouth.
“Damn it- “ Scott whispered, mainly to himself.
Tango’s eyes widened. “Oh-“ He said quickly, likely understanding his mistake just then. “I get it;
I’m sorry. You don’t have to tell me anything right now.”
Scott wasn’t sure what to say. Was it nice that Tango wasn’t making him answer any of his
questions? Sure. But if he couldn’t even get past saying Jimmy’s pet name out loud, then how the
heck was he suppose to get over everything else?
“Can I ask you another thing?” Tango said, speaking up suddenly.
Scott looked at him, he didn’t give a direct ‘yes’, but he didn’t say no either.
“It has mostly nothing to do with Jimmy.” Tango swiftly added.
At this, Scott gave a silent nod. Not nearly expecting the next words that came out of the other’s
mouth.
“Do you still want to leave the game?“
Scott stared at the other, stunned.
Once again, he said nothing. What was there to even say to that? And why was Tango asking him
that now of all times??
What was going on?
“Scott,” Tango continued hesitantly. “if you want to go… You can go.”
Scott stayed silent, still processing the first question.
“I have my own reasons for staying here, but I shouldn’t have tried to force you to stay as well
when you clearly didn’t want to. That was selfish.”
Scott quickly sat up at that. “Wait, what-?”
“I can even make it easy!” Tango went on. “I‘ll take all the damage on my own so that you don’t
have to hurt yourself and neither of us would be breaking the rules. Plus that way, I can still stick
around and you can take all my deaths and eventually die for good.”
The blaze finished his ramble, gazing at Scott intently.
“What do you say?”
Scott blinked. What should he say? Should he tell Tango the truth? That the stupid speech he gave
him at the edge of that ravine had actually convinced him to stay, not for the reasons he’d listed,
but simply because it had reinforced the fact that Jimmy was still going to hate him once he got
back and that he wanted to evade that inevitable outcome for as long as possible? Should he lie and
say something completely different? Like that he wants to take some kind of revenge on Grian or
something??
Scott lowered his head. No. No more lies. He’d only just managed to stop lying to himself. Lying
to Tango would only resurface bad habits. What good would lying to him do anyway? It’d only
save some of his pride. How much did that even count for in the long run?
Maybe he could find something in between. Something vague enough to not be the hard truth but
not be a lie either.
“Tango…” Scott said, lifting his head back up. “Don’t be stupid.”
Tango’s face fell flat. “Huh?”
Scott went on, hardening his gaze. “You really think I’ve been doing this well and continuing on
for this long just because you begged me to stay?”
Tango blinked. “Well—I don’t think I’d use the word ‘beg’ per say-“
“Not important.” Scott said, cutting him off. “I’m here for my own reasons too. I’m not one bad
day away from jumping down a ravine. I’m not in any rush to get back home either.”
Scott relaxed his shoulders, giving Tango a more sincere look. “So don’t stress out over whether or
not I’m here of my own desire, because I am, okay?”
Tango stared back at him for a while before visibly relaxing his body as well, a soft smile
spreading over his face. “Okay.” He said. “I understand.”
Scott felt relieved at the lack of continued questions. But also, he liked seeing Tango this way.
Calm and reassured. The complete opposite of his rage-induced blackouts.
It wasn’t such a bad look for him.
Looking at him, Scott suddenly recalled something he’d been meaning to tell the other.
“Wait—I literally just remembered this…” Scott began, moving to cross his legs on the bed as he
summoned something from his inventory. “I ended up nabbing something at Grian’s base while I
was looking for the enchanter.”
It took only a second for the object to manifest in his hands, but when it did, Tango’s eyes shot
wide open. Scott held out the horn he’d grabbed, letting Tango swiftly take it from him without
hesitation.
“Did- did you actually-??” The blaze stammered through his words and he observed the horn from
every side.
“It’s yours, if you want it-“
“Uh-? Yeah I want it!!” Tango gleefully insisted. Just as quickly, he moved to hold it by the base
and held it up to his mouth.
“Ah- wait-!” Scott spoke frantically, holding both hands up. “Let’s maybe not do that right now?
Everyone’s sleeping.”
Well, almost everyone.
Immediately, Tango’s look of glee shifted into one of absolute devastation. Though Scott could
clearly tell that most of that was just for dramatic effect.
“You give me a horn right in the middle of a time when I can’t blow it??” Tango whined in a way
that made Scott have to hold back some laughter. “You’re cruel, Scott. Really cruel.”
Theatrics now subsiding, Tango sat back upright, giving Scott a genuine look of appreciation.
” Thank you.” He said, smiling.
Yeah, happiness really was a nice look for him.
“You know I’m gonna have to get you something in return now, right?” Tango spoke again, storing
the horn away in his own inventory.
Scott hadn’t expected him to offer something up in return. Though now that Tango was offering,
he kind of wanted to let him follow up on it, letting his curiosity get the better of him.
“I really doubt you can top what I got.” Scott said confidently. And given Tango’s reaction to the
horn, he believed it.
“We’ll see.” The other said, grinning back.
Scott wasn’t sure what happened after that. Not specifically, anyway. He knew they both continued
talking for a while, neither bothering to look outside and check where the moon was anymore.
Eventually though, he was able to find sleep. The process having happened much like the night
before, in which neither him, nor Tango realized they’d passed out at around the same time.
The last thing Scott did remember thinking about, however, was what Tango might end up giving
him.
Chapter End Notes
Omg this chapter is literally all just talking but I hope it was still interesting
Sleeping Beauty
Chapter Summary
Tango has a very unexpected realization. He has a quiet conversation with a sleeping
Scott.
Chapter Notes
Aaaaand- we’re back!
Thank you all so much for waiting! I really appreciate it and I’m so glad to be writing
again!! Especially this chapter in particular. You’ll find out why soon enough ;)
Things were different between him and Jimmy after the ranch incident.
Not so different that it was noticeable from an outside perspective, but just enough for Tango to
realize it himself. Just enough for him to worry over whether or not Jimmy felt the same.
He had to feel at least something… right? Whatever this was, it had surpassed friendship a while
ago. At least in his eyes it did.
But what if he’s just being weird and it’s all in his head? What if it was nothing at all?? Either way,
knowing for sure if Jimmy felt the same or not wasn’t going to change his own feelings on the
matter. One might consider that a valid reason not to worry about the whole thing, but his heart
argued otherwise.
He’d been viewing Jimmy differently on a physical level too. Ever since yesterday, it had all been
so different. Every time their hands touched when they were handing each other things, every time
their arms bumped sides while walking, Tango’s heart skipped a beat. All that being quickly
followed by a bitter feeling of loss as soon as the contact ended. That’s not even including how
much Tango liked it when Jimmy looked at him. He loved seeing the other’s soft smiles,
especially when they were the product of something he said or did. He loved hearing his voice, his
laugh…
He liked looking at the other’s eyes too. Those kind, calming eyes that he stared into, that broke
him out of his mad trance.
“Don’t look at the ranch, look at me.”
Oh god, he knew he’d never have to be asked to do that again. He could look at Jimmy for hours
just out of his own willingness.
Tango gave his head a quick shake. He should stop dwelling on these things; they were distracting.
And distractions were the last thing he needed given his current situation.
A sudden croak went off, low and ominous. Cautiously, Tango took a step forward, the soft wool
under him muffling his footsteps. The warden had to have been close. He could hear the noises
getting closer, though from which direction, it was hard to tell.
There was a stretch of silence for a moment. Then, all the torches in the area blew out at once.
He was here.
Tango let out a small squeak of terror before he took off running. The warden had to have been
chasing him by then; those ominous sounds were nothing to sneeze at.
“Gotta go gotta go gotta go-“ Tango whispered frantically as he retraced his steps back towards the
exit. He tried to calm himself as he ran. After all, this had all gone according to plan so far. Now,
all he needed to do was get the mob to chase him back through the entrance to the water elevator
and he’d be good to go…
…So, things didn’t exactly go according to plan.
“Tango! Run-!” Jimmy shouted.
No need to tell him twice. They were both off in different directions as soon as the darkness swept
over them. On the bright side, it didn’t take long for the warden’s shrieks and moans to become
distant. On the downside however, they had now lead it in the direction of the ranch. Oops.
Cue a frenzy of frantic stumbling and yelling that eventually got most of the server involved. They
continued running all over the map trying to redirect the warden to where they wanted him to go,
but eventually what was suppose to be a revenge plot somehow turned into nothing more than a
funny, chaotic game. During several instances, Tango had noticed his soulmate struggling to see
whenever the warden would get too close. It wasn’t so much his own intent as it was both of theirs
when they found themselves reaching out for each other’s hands. Tango would make sure to keep a
firm grip on the other’s, silently enjoying the contact despite the crazy situation they were in.
It was early nighttime when they’d finally decided to give up on revenge completely. Though by
then, Tango hadn’t felt as heated about what Scar did as before. In fact, the burning of the ranch
had all but slipped his mind for the rest of that day. Which looking back, was unsurprising
considering he had Jimmy as a distraction the entire time.
Here they were now, standing on the edge of a hill with at least half the server, laughing about how
silly the warden looked as he stumbled around blindly while attacking any mob that moved into his
vicinity. Tango continued watching until Joel suddenly fired an arrow at the thing, causing the
frantic yelling of the group to start up again as the warden began marching directly towards them.
“JOEL!” Grian yelled angrily as he began to run away with everyone else.
Tango turned to look at the man, who had a devilish grin on his face, but was otherwise starting to
back away with the rest of them.
The blaze sighed. This had been a waste of time, but a fun waste of time at that. He looked to
Jimmy, who was already staring back at him, his smile as bright and beautiful as ever under the
moonlight.
“We should probably get moving.” He said, holding his hand out. Tango looked down at it. The
warden was a good while away. Sure, they should get moving, but no one was really panicking at
this rate. They wouldn’t be engulfed in darkness and there was no need for them to hold hands
anymore.
And yet…
Tango smiled back, taking the other’s hand firmly in his. They began running once more. And they
never let go from there.
Tango felt stiff when he woke up. More so than usual. Thankfully, there wasn’t anyone trapping
his arm this time, but he did still feel… odd, to say the least.
For one thing, Scott had fallen asleep against him for the second time this game. For another,
they’d more or less chosen to sleep in the same bed this time rather than it being the result of some
random blackout and bad timing.
Actually? No. That wasn’t the case for either of the two times. They could have left and done their
own thing at any time that night. But they didn’t. They just stayed there together. As if it were
perfectly normal for them, as if they both thought it unreasonable to assume anything else.
Tango stretched out his legs, yawning. It wasn’t as though they were in as weird a position as last
time. Both of them had fallen asleep sitting up, spread out across the wrong end of the bed, the
vertical end, again. Sheesh, what the heck did they even make the beds for? They might as well
have just slept in chairs.
Well, if they were in chairs, then Scott wouldn’t be leaning against him as closely as he was; his
wouldn’t have his head rested on his shoulder; his hair wouldn’t be tickling the side of his face.
Tango knew he should probably move, but he didn’t want to wake him up. And judging by how
dim the lighting looked to be from outside the window, He figured that it was still pretty early in
the morning. Surprisingly, he’d woken up with time to spare.
So, now what?
Obviously, he couldn’t just get up and leave. This wasn’t like the night before; Scott was leaning
upright on his side. He couldn’t just pull his arm free, he’d have to rearrange the other completely
somehow without waking him. Tango eyed Scott once more just to be sure. Yeah, no. He didn’t see
a way out of this that didn’t end with Scott falling on his face and waking up. He shouldn’t even
attempt it, god knows the man needed as much sleep as he could get his hands on.
Given his situation, at first, Tango just tried falling back asleep. But that proved to be a lot more
difficult now that he was under the awkward tenseness of having an entire person on him. To add
to that, it’d probably be in both of their interests for him to pull away as soon as he felt that Scott
was about to wake up. He really didn’t want to have to make eye contact with the other in this
position, and he’d be willing to bet that neither did he.
So, that just left him with option B: sitting in silence. Well, at least he could feel all his limbs this
time. That made this a lot less uncomfortable, but still a great deal more boring.
Of course, Tango knew that he’d have to wake the other up eventually if it ended up getting too
late into the morning. Perhaps once he could tell that the sun had finished rising would be when
he’d call it. At least he knew that Scott wouldn’t resent him for it, seeing as he’d been peeved at
him yesterday for not waking him up sooner.
And so, he waited. Painstakingly so. It had been what Tango may have guessed as 15 minutes in
when he really started wishing he’d kept his comm on him instead of leaving it on his own bed
which was on the other end of the room. At half an hour, he had looked at and analyzed the exact
placement of everything within his frontal vision. If he were to close his eyes, he’d be able to
manifest an exact copy of the room in his mind with not a single thing out of place. It was roughly
an hour in when Tango started getting desperate. He wanted to do something—anything!
And that’s when he carefully turned his head to look at the one thing in the room he hadn’t stared
at yet.
He turned his head to Scott.
Scott looked peaceful, just as he had the other night. He had the blanket pulled up over his legs
while the rest of his body was visibly curled up. His arms were tucked in weirdly. One of them,
Tango saw, was pressed against his lower shoulder, while the other was smushed between them,
tucked tightly under Scott’s body. He could just barely see his face from this angle, but most of it
was still visible. He saw how the other’s lips were slightly parted and soft-looking. How his face
still carried creases from stress and restlessness. How his eyes were closed ever so gently, dark
rings still underlining them, just barely visible by now, but still there. All these features made him
look so soft and passive, likely how most people had known him to be. But at the same time, there
still existed the traits that gave him away, that hinted at some damage underneath it all.
Scott wasn’t in a pretty position by any means. To that extent, he was far from being in a neat and
well-kept state too. But that didn’t matter. Despite how he might have looked to anyone else,
Tango just couldn’t help but see him differently.
It was in that moment, after staring at him for what was probably much longer than what could be
deemed reasonable, a single, intruding thought suddenly came into Tango’s mind before he could
comprehend the implications of it. A question that he had absolutely no right to be asking.
Had Scott always been so beautiful?
The moment the thought registered Tango’s eyes shot wide open. He felt his body quickly tense up
as he choked on air, nearly pulling away from the other fully and standing up right then and there.
But he didn’t. And thankfully, Scott hadn’t seemed to notice his slight, but sudden jolt of fear.
What the hell was he thinking?
Tango’s heart started racing. Shit. Shit—okay. He really needed to calm down. He’s fine. He’s
overreacting! Scott’s pretty. That’s literally all there was to it. Scott was pretty to him and that was
okay. Surely lots of people found Scott beautiful; he was just a beautiful person! One would
consider it an average, everyday compliment, if anything. He looked good naturally. He often did
try to look good and dress up stylishly at times because that was his thing! Everyone knew that!
And just because he found someone to be good-looking by default didn’t mean that there was
anything more to his thoughts than that.
Only, Tango hadn’t always thought that about Scott. He’d actually called him weird and sweaty not
even three hours into the game. And realistically, he didn’t look any better now. He just looked
bed-headed, and tired, and messy—
—and beautiful.
Tango was incredibly close to slamming the back of his head hard against the wall behind him
simply to get his mind to focus on literally anything else. The only thing stopping him, of course,
was the threat of Scott waking up at the noise.
This was stupid. This was stupid! He was tired. That was all. He was just tired, and stupid, and he
missed Jimmy and he was probably stupidly horny too, and that was it.
But if he were being honest with himself, he didn’t exactly feel that way in particular. He didn’t
feel as though he wanted to do anything with anyone at the moment.
He just wanted to keep staring at Scott…
…At the hour and a half mark, Tango started talking to Scott.
“So,” the blaze said, in a gentle voice just barely a whisper. “I see you’ve fallen asleep on me
again.”
Scott, as expected, said nothing.
“You know, if I wasn’t already aware of how pissed you’ve been with me, I’d think you were
trying to make a move on me.” Tango joked. Though he realized how terrible the timing of that
phrase was and, despite the fact that Scott couldn’t even hear him, was still quick to correct
himself.
“That was a joke. Tango spoke cautiously. “Clearly, if that were true, that’d be really weird. For
multiple reasons. Obviously.”
Still no reply.
Well, at least he knew it was alright to remain at this volume.
Tango sighed, wondering what in the world he was even doing with his life at this point. Was this
really what he was willing to do for entertainment? Was this just the universe’s funny way of
punishing him?
Despite his conversation partner still being very much asleep, Tango still tried to turn the awkward
subject around to something else.
“Hey,” He said, after having paused for a long moment. “I know you don’t wanna hear this, but, I
think I’m starting to understand why you don’t sleep.”
Tango felt his body relax. He wasn’t entirely sure where this one-sided talk was going anymore,
but he figured it didn’t matter. Scott was asleep, after all.
“Like, I knew the reason why before, but now, I’m starting to really get it.” Tango continued,
speaking more sincerely than he had expected to. “I miss him too, Scott. I really do.”
He felt a small stir come from the other. So small he could of imagined it. Tango looked to his
side. Scott was still rested on his shoulder. Still in the exact same position, as quiet and peaceful as
ever.
He wasn’t going to recall any of this. He might as well say whatever he wanted to the other. It’s not
as though he’d get another chance to do it without having to suffer any possible consequences.
Tango felt an ache in his chest. He swallowed hard, turning back to look straight ahead. It was
easier that way.
He kept going.
“I know I have no right to say that. To say that I miss him. It’s only been two days for me, but for
you…”
Tango let out a soft, sad laugh. The ache in his chest growing more unbearable by the second.
“Oh god, how did you do it?”
Tango froze. Oh, that’s right, he never did get over him, did he?
That just made him feel so much worse.
“How have you been doing it?” He rephrased.
Scott still remained silent.

“You’re really incredible, you know that? You’ve surprised me so many times at this point; I
honestly wish I’d gotten to know you sooner.”
The blaze paused.
As quickly as it had come, Tango’s soft smile faded, his demeanor growing much more serious in
an instant as if his conscience had suddenly been dragged back down to earth.
“You don’t deserve this.” Tango whispered bleakly, his words more honest than Scott would ever
know.
“I’m not— stupid , Scott.” The blaze went on. “Well, maybe I was. But I’ve gotten a lot less stupid
over the past few days.”
He gripped at his shirt, and despite how uncomfortable it made him in this moment, Tango forced
himself to look back at his teammate. He didn’t know where all these feelings suddenly came
from, but he was being serious now. Now, these words really were meant for Scott.
“I know you want him back. And I know you want me to apologize to you. Really apologize. For
making Jimmy leave, or at the very least, not giving him the option to leave me and go back to
you. For putting you through emotional hell for six months. For taking your voluntary leave after
Double Life as an excuse to assume that you just didn’t care.”
His breath hitched on the last word. The blaze took a moment to exhale deeply, letting himself get
his emotions under control before continuing.
“I know that that’s the least that I owe you.” He said, tone painfully serious. “…But, I can’t even
do that for you.”
Tango tensed up again, his bleak smile returning. “Isn’t that just pathetic?” He insisted. “I can’t
even give you that.”
Scott remained silent.

“Because if I said I was sorry, it would mean that I regret what happened. That I regret ever
meeting him.”
He took in a deep breath.
“And as selfish as that makes me, I just can’t bring myself to feel that way. I can’t offer you an
apology so hollow and meaningless.”
He spoke his next words even quieter, but with a truthful weight to them none the less.
“You deserve better than to be disrespected like that.”
And then, there was silence. Nothing but dead silence between them for a time that felt like forever,
but could have just as easily been a few seconds.
Tango hoped he’d feel as though a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, but as it turned out, the
exact opposite was the case. What good was telling all this to an unconscious Scott? He might as
well be talking to a dead one. Actually, that might be even better, since at least a dead Scott could
still hear him as a ghost.
But no. There was no weight that had been lifted, no relief to be felt. Instead, the blaze just
continued sitting there, just as he had for the past hour or so. Sitting and staring and contemplating
his life choices. He wanted to tell Scott all this. Tell him while he was awake and listening. And
maybe eventually he’d get the courage to do so.
But until then, he’d just have to settle for this.
“I meant what I said to you back at the cave.” Tango whispered after an eternity of thinking.
He looked down, ashamed.
“I don’t know how to fix this.”

And that was it. No ‘but’s, no ‘maybe’s, just a blank space. A big question mark.
A hollow statement.
Chapter End Notes
Alright, big step for Tango here…

Monopoly (Enchanted Edition)
Chapter Summary
Scott contemplates where his feelings on Tango lie. The two visit the nether with
Cleo’s team and figure out what to do with the enchanting table.
Chapter Notes
Christ- how the heck did this gain, like, a hundred more kudos in the span of a week?
How??
Thank you guys for this. 800+ is insane and I’m just absolutely blown away by it!
He should have just said something the moment he’d woken up. He should have opened his eyes,
moved away, maybe at least try to acknowledge just how weird it was that he’d somehow fallen
asleep on Tango yet again. He didn’t do that, however. Instead, he just had to go and let Tango
ramble on like that. Just had to let his curiosity get to him and listen in on everything.
Like a moron.
In his defense, it was all pretty hazy at first. First thing he noticed when he came to was soft
whispering coming from above him, so soft it was soothing. Someone was talking about missing
someone? Or missing him?
Didn’t matter much. He realized fairly quickly that it was Tango who was talking anyway. And
everything else that was being spoken became clear after that.
Scott was feeling a lot of emotions in that moment. One of them was anger. Anger at Tango,
maybe a little but of anger at himself for even feeling the way that he did to begin with. Tango
really couldn’t bring himself to regret what he did, could he? Well, Scott would be lying if he said
that surprised him. It didn’t. In fact, he’d expected it. But it still hurt to hear it said to his face, if a
bit indirectly.
Most of those emotions, however, fit into the category of simple, pure confusion. He’d never heard
a person seem so sincerely sorry about something without actually saying the words. To Scott, it
seemed more like the other was sorry for how their situation came to be, or sorry that he’d been
part of the very widespread collateral damage that came about from the previous Life game. More
or less, it was all the same thing. But what stood out was what he wasn’t sorry for, and that
apparently was taking his ex from him.
“You’re incredible, you know that?”
“I honestly wish I’d gotten to know you sooner.”
Why, why, why—did Tango always manage to phrase things in the most devastatingly flattering
ways possible?? It’s as though he was trying to get a reaction out of him!
Frustrations aside, his response to that statement would have been a simple one. Had they’d known
each other sooner then the result would have been the exact same. They’d be stuck in a situation
where either one or both or god forbid all three of them would remain unhappy. Because what was
Jimmy suppose to do? Pick both of them??
Wow. Wow… Okay, so maybe Jimmy‘s situation was a bit more overwhelming than he’d first
given it credit for.
Thinking on it, had him and Tango gotten to know each other sooner, they would have probably
just been in the exact same situation with the only difference being that it would hurt more. And
just like the outcome Double Life had produced now, that outcome would have just made him
want to cry even harder in frustration. Why couldn’t Tango have just been the selfish, two-
dimensional asshole he assumed he was from the start? Why’d he have to go and be so nice and
interesting and funny and human? What gave him the right??
Though of course, he was still selfish to a point. Scott had heard what he’d said; he had no regrets.
He wasn’t sorry. And yeah, maybe that did reinforce his claim that he truly loved Jimmy just that
much, but it also proved that the pain he’d been feeling over the past six months wasn’t a good
enough reason for Tango to regret anything.
Though, if he really did love him, then that made his situation no different than his own. Could
Scott really say that if the roles had been reversed, he would have let Jimmy go? If Tango really
did fall for him in the small span of time in which they’d been around for during the game, then
what else could the blaze have done in that situation? What else was there for him to do?
Slowly, Scott opened his eyes. He looked up at Tango, who bore an expression more dreadful than
what he had pictured in his head. He was staring straight ahead, bleakly. It had been a while since
he’d said anything else. Whatever he’d wanted to say to him seemed to be out of his system
completely now.
With that in mind, Scott finally decided that it was time for him to “wake up.”
Funnily enough, he’d mistaken Tango for a blanket the first time he’d woken up. His clothes had
about the same texture as one and he was warm and surprisingly comfortable to lie on.
Sidestepping how weird that thought was—Scott analyzed Tango’s face further, the other’s own
gaze still fixed on the room in front of them. He seemed tired, bored, but mostly, just plain
depressed. Had what he’d admitted really weighed him down that much?
Once again, Scott’s opinions were at an impasse. This was Tango. He had no right to feel sad over
what he’d said. He’s the reason his ex boyfriend left and he didn’t even feel sorry about it.
—But at the same time, this was Tango. The person who kept him up all night with interesting
stories. Who refused to sleep until he did even when he was acting irrational. Who trusted him with
his past and made him tea and guided him in the dark and talked him off a ledge when he was sad
but was also there to catch him when he jumped off.
This was Tango.
Scott continued staring, mind somehow less concerned with whether or not the other might notice
him.
Then, the blaze turned his head ever so slightly. And the both of them made eye contact.
It wasn’t awkward right away like Scott had expected. He noticed Tango flinch in surprise only
slightly, mouth open just a bit, less in shock and more in curiousness. Scott returned the curious
gaze, having not yet moved from his resting spot against the side of the blaze’s arm. Come to think
of it, why hadn’t Tango moved away yet?
Why hadn’t he?

“You’re awake.” Tango finally said.
Scott’s eyes widened; he blinked. “Yep.” He spoke bluntly despite the exaggerated look on his
face. In that moment, he had to assume that neither of them had moved yet simply out of shock.
But they just kept staring, long after any kind of shock might have subsided.
Then, Tango smiled. And there it was again. That stupid, contagious laughter.
“Sorry-“ the other grinned, clearly holding back fits of giggling. “it’s just…”
Scott finally moved, quickly shoving himself back up. “No, no- I know.” He did know—scratch
that, he was painfully aware of just how awkward this was becoming.
But Tango was clearly feeling the exact opposite, his laughter having fully escaped by then.
“Oh my god.” He continued laughing, slumping deeply against the wall till his legs were halfway
off the side of the bed. Scott let out a loud cough to mask the laughter that was working it’s way
out of him, though he had the feeling that Tango hadn’t bought it for a second.
He bit his lip, grinning as he put a hand to the blaze’s shoulder and shoved him. Unsurprisingly, he
didn’t budge much.
“Hey-!” Tango yelled, still grinning.
“Get off my bed.” Scott said, trying to sound serious despite the now obvious smile he was
wearing.
“ Please, ” Tango replied, rolling his eyes. “you crashed on mine last time.”
“Get off!!” Scott said once again, half yelling, half laughing.
The blaze seemed less surprised than he probably should have been when Scott placed both his
hands on him, knees planted firmly on the mattress and scooting backwards inch by inch while
using his own body weight as leverage as he tried to yank him off the edge by the side of his shirt.
Meanwhile Tango, who was still in hysterics, couldn’t seem to muster even the slightest bit of
strength to slide off himself given how hard he was laughing. It was like his body had turned into
jelly. And it was that ridiculous mental comparison that finally pushed the last of Scott’s recent
anger towards the blaze to the back of his mind. Now, all he seemed to be capable of focusing on
was that stupid smile of his.
This continued on for a few seconds. Unfortunately for Scott, his attempt to drag Tango off the bed
went a little too well and before either of them could realize what was happening, Scott had fallen
backwards off the edge of the mattress, hands still locked onto the blaze’s shirt in a death grip as
the weight of his body pulled the other down with him.
In an instant, Tango cut his laughing just for a second to yell. “Dude-!!”
It wasn’t a far fall. Luckily, Scott’s back hit the ground first, sparing his head anything other than a
little discomfort. Tango had nearly fallen on top of him, but seemed to miss him safe for an arm
and a leg. Just like when they’d made eye contact that morning, the two stayed silent in shock.
But Scott got only a moment of peace before the laughter started up all over again.
This time, it was more wheezing than laughing. Scott supposed that made sense; he too was
completely out of breath after all that. Though he still managed to get out a few words.
“Are you dying??” Scott yelled breathlessly.
He watched as Tango rolled over, the few stray limbs that had fallen on top of him slipping off.
The blaze just kept trying to catch his breath, clearly failing miserably at it.
“Literally, what is wrong with you?” Scott asked, still on the floor recovering.
“Everything.” Tango sighed, smiling. Scott noticed his chest rising up and down slowly as his
breathing seemed to finally even out.
He groaned, pulling himself up into a sitting position, and eventually, managing to stand up
completely.
Scott looked down at the other, deadpanned. “You’re insane.”
Tango only smiled at that, gazing up at him calmly.
He very visibly rolled his eyes. “Get up…” Scott sighed, stretching an arm out.
He watched as Tango sat up, taking it and allowing him to pull him back up.
He let go as soon as the other was up, groaning loudly and running both hands up over his face and
into his messy hair.
“Great way to start the morning, Tango.” He muttered sarcastically. “Thank you for that.”
Tango let out a laugh once more. “At least no one blew up our base while we were asleep like you
were expecting.” He spoke. “Morning could have gone a lot worse if you ask me.”
In that instance, Scott still couldn’t even muster the energy to be mad at him again. Everything was
just so unbelievable with this guy.
He turned to look out the window, surprised that it seemed to actually be early morning for them.
Wow. Who knew they were capable of getting a full nights rest?
Scott sighed, finally feeling calm enough to actually breath. He laced his fingers together in a
reverse lock, lifting them high above his head and giving his body a generous stretch towards the
ceiling. His muscles ached, but not too badly. Though it was hard to tell if that was from how
active he was yesterday, or simply because he’d fallen too hard on the ground just then. Oh well,
he figured it didn’t matter much.
He felt his shirt lift up above his lower stomach at his peak reach. Scott made sure to keep his hold
there steadily and after a few seconds like that, he relaxed once more, lowering his arms and
calmly sucking in a deep breath as he turned back around—
—Only to see Tango staring at him again.
Scott looked at the other, confused. Tango’s body was lax and he had his mouth slightly open. He
seemed perplexed, entranced even, his eyes looking him over in a way that felt much different than
when he’d noticed him “waking up”.
However, Scott didn’t think much of it at first, breathing out a small laugh and grinning. “You
should take a picture.” He teased. “It’ll last longer.”
Given how he’d said it, Scott assumed without even thinking that the other would have taken that
jab for the obvious joke that it was. But Tango didn’t laugh. In fact, his reaction was just about the
last thing Scott would have expected.
He started blushing.
As soon as he’d noticed it, Scott saw the other quickly snap his mouth shut and turn his head away,
seeming as though he were now trying to look at literally anything else.
“I- I didn’t mean to watch—I’m sorry.” Tango blurted out quickly. Scott could only freeze in
confusion.
“I’m just still kind of tired- and- and loopy and-“
Scott’s gaze softened. “Tango.” He said, holding a hand up. The blaze quit speaking immediately.
“It’s fine.” He finished. Though he wasn’t entirely sure what he was reassuring the other about. He
was only looking at him, probably just waiting for him to finish stretching. Sure, staring might be
considered a bit rude to some people, but they were well past formalities at this point. Why should
he think that was wrong?
Tango didn’t seem to change his expression much, however. So Scott tried changing the subject
instead.
“It’s morning now.” He stated, turning to look out the window. He noticed Tango slowly follow
his gaze out of the corner of his vision.
“And…?” The blaze asked slowly, now speaking a little more normally again.
Scott shrugged. “It’s probably fine to use the horn. If you still want to, I mean-“
Tango’s eyes shot open, his expression immediately perking up as he let out a small gasp and
rushed past Scott and out the front door before he could even finish his sentence. A second later
and Scott’s ears were soon filled with the loud blast of the item from outside. The call of which,
seemed rather unique to him.
He smiled, having held in his laughter upon watching Tango’s comedically quick reaction. Almost
instantly after he heard the noise, his comm started buzzing with a series of messages. Scott walked
back over to the bed, rummaging around the blankets before finding the device and picking it up.
<LDShadowLady> Oh god here we go again…
<BdoubleO100> Nooooooo
<ZombieCleo> I can just tell he’s gonna be blowing it all session
<Etho> Alright, new objective everyone
<Etho> Steal the horn from Tango
<Grian> Is THAT where my horn went?
<Grian> HOW??
Scott grinned, typing out his own response.
<Smajor1995> Snatched it from the watchtower

<Smajor1995> It’s not like you were using it anyway
<bigbst4tz2> Seriously??
<LDShadowLady> And you gave it to TANGO of all people?
<PearlescentMoon> Awwww
<ZombieCleo> He’s insane
<PearlescentMoon> No he’s not!
<PearlescentMoon> I think that’s really sweet of you Scott
Pearl seemed to have much kinder words for his actions than everyone else did. And while Scott
did appreciate that, he also found it odd how apparent it was to everyone at this point that he
wasn’t constantly at his teammate’s throat anymore.
<Smallishbeans> Wait
<Smallishbeans> I’m out of the loop here
<Smallishbeans> Did you guys stop hating each other or something?
Well, almost everyone.
Scott’s body went stiff as he read the last message. Although he couldn’t see it, he knew that
everyone else in the chat had to have had a similar reaction given that all other messages had
ceased completely in that moment. Jeez, Joel. Learn to read a room sometime…
He looked up at Tango from the window, who was still happily blowing his horn. Then back down
at his comm, furrowing his brows. He didn’t hate him. And wow—did that thought come
frighteningly more easier to him now than it did before, but it was true.
Scott looked back down at his screen, only noticing just then that Pearl’s name was now in yellow.
<Smajor1995> Pearl
<Smajor1995> What happened??
<PearlescentMoon> Huh?
<PearlescentMoon> Oh
<PearlescentMoon> Joel and Scar got into a bit of a situation this morning
<GoodTimesWithScar> Haha
<PearlescentMoon> Think Joel was trying to prank him with a tnt chest but it backfired and he
ended up blowing himself up
<PearlescentMoon> Thanks for that one Joel
<Smallishbeans> Any time
Scott let out a small laugh. Thankfully, no one seemed to be paying attention anymore to what Joel
had said previously.
He heard the door open suddenly and turned to see his teammate walking back in, still smiling
brightly as he pocketed the horn back into his inventory.
“Enjoy yourself?” Scott asked, smirking.
“Oh yeah. Very much.” Tango replied, walking over to one of the chests. Scott watched as he
pulled out the sweater he’d taken off the night before and threw it back on. He walked over to the
blaze, squeezing in next to him and leaning in to grab something from the hidden chest under that
one.
“So, we should probably head back over to Cleo’s soon.” Scott said, pulling away, the light-brown
and gold book now in his hands. “Make sure we know what exactly we’re gonna do with this
thing.” He held it up briefly, storing it away in his own inventory.
Tango hummed. “Let’s eat before we head out first.” He said, moving to set down one of the
furnaces he had in an open space. He knelt down, summoning a lump of coal and throwing it in to
get it started before gesturing for Scott to come forward. “C’mon, you can help me this time since
you’re awake.”
Scott scoffed. “You make it sound like I didn’t help on purpose last time even though I would have
preferred that you woke me up.”
He walked over to Tango and knelt down next to him, summoning a stick to poke at the coals with.
“But aren’t you glad I didn’t?” Tango said, turning to smirk at him, their faces now much closer.
Scott narrowed his eyes, staring back at him for a moment before inevitably sighing and grinning
back. “…Yeah. I guess.” He admitted reluctantly.
He saw Tango smile as they looked at each other. Their faces were close, but Scott didn’t pull
away. For some reason, as had been the case when he first woke up, he didn’t feel compelled to. In
fact, he felt more inclined to draw in the details of Tango’s face once more. The light coming from
the window seemed to hit him just right, making his hair appear shiny and his eyes soft. Scott
traced the edges of the shadows on his face with his eyes, following them all the way down to his
neckline and then back up until both their eyes locked onto each other again.
Why did this always seem to happen with them? Why were they always getting caught in these
little moments? These long glances? It was strange, to put it bluntly. A short while ago, Scott might
have also deemed it bizarre. But it didn’t feel that way now. Just… peaceful. It should have been
awkward, but it wasn’t.
Until Tango opened his mouth to speak again.
“For what it’s worth,-“ He spoke quietly, and Scott’s breathing hitched for just a second. “-your
eyes look a lot nicer.”
Another peaceful second passed before the words seemed to register, as had been made visibly
apparent by both their suddenly shocked expressions. Scott hadn’t expected Tango to say
something like that. And from the looks of the other, neither did he.
He saw Tango jolt slightly, breaking the trance and quickly turning his head away to focus back on
the furnace, the flames inside it having quickly increased to a noticeable size. Scott thought he saw
the blaze blushing again, though that could have just as easily been caused by the heat coming
from the fire.
“The dark rings—I mean.” Tango stuttered out, quickly summoning the food he’d grabbed from
the chest into the furnace and moving to stand back up. They’re faded now—so…”
Scott pulled the stick he was holding out of the fire, vanishing it as he stood as well. “Right…” He
replied, hopefully reassuringly.
Things moved swiftly after that. They ate scrambled eggs with some of the steak that Cleo’s team
had left them with yesterday. They talked somewhat, as they always did. It was peaceful once
more, right up until they geared up and left. But Scott felt odd the entire time. He knew things had
changed between him and Tango, and quite quickly at that. Had most of that change been for the
better? Possibly. But even as they made their way to Cleo’s, he just couldn’t shake the feeling that
something strange was going on with his teammate.
“So,” Bdubs started off, addressing everyone in the lighthouse. They’d all gathered at the top floor
to enchant their own weapons and armor first. Bdubs was now holding the shrunken version of the
enchanting table in his hand while observing it skeptically. “this thing’s clearly important since you
guys let me DIE while trying to get it.”
Cleo frowned. “I told you I was sorry, B!”

“I don’t wanna hear it!” Bdubs said, tossing the book onto the center of the table they were all
standing around and crossing his arms. Scott turned his head to Cleo, who was now gazing at
Bdubs with a pouted lip and sad puppy eyes. Bdubs, unsurprisingly, was very affected by this.
“Er- just- check for pressure plates next time before you go barging into someone’s base, alright??”
He muttered, blushing. Scott stifled a snicker. Cleo seemed content with the other’s reaction.
“So, where are we storing it?” Tango spoke up, reaching for the book. “Cause it sure isn’t safe in
either of our bases.”
“We all actually had an idea about what we might do with it.” Etho replied, a sly smile visible in
his eyes. “It’s starts with an M and ends with a-“
“Please don’t tell me we’re doing another monopoly.” Scott groaned.
He saw Cleo smirk at him, a scheming look in her eyes. “Would that really be so bad?”
“Yes!” Scott irked. “Those things never work and if they do, they never end well.”
Tango nodded. “Can attest. Jimmy’s dead because of one.”
“Okay-“ Cleo spoke again. “well first off, this one wouldn’t involve anything as risky as killing
people.”
“But people would still want us dead if we’re hogging the table.” Tango protested.
“People already want us dead, Tango!” Cleo fired back. “And besides, I rather think the two other
teams would be thankful that we did the hard part for them and got it back. What’s a little extra fee
to use it, all things considered?”
Scott looked to his teammate, who was already looking back at him. Tango gave him a small nod,
though his eyes were already a language of their own. Scott nodded back, certain that they were
both on the same page with this. “Alright then.” He continued. “Assume we charge people to use
it. Then we’re back to square one: where do we keep it?”
Cleo grinned. “The nether.”
“The nether?” Tango questioned.
Scott gave Cleo a suspicious glare. “I’m guessing this had something to do with what you were
working on last night?”
“You know what?” Etho said, pulling away from the table. “Why don’t we just show you?”
It’d been a while since Scott had been to the nether. In fact, he couldn’t recall having gone here
once since the game started. Though that was likely because they’d all been so busy on the
overworld and had gotten anything they could have gotten here from Cleo’s team.
Watching Tango, however, Scott wondered why they hadn’t been there sooner, if only to get an
idea of what it looked like in this world. The blaze seemed to be ecstatic, joyfully smelling the
cinder-filled air as if it were pleasant to anyone other than himself and running his hands over the
low-hanging warped vines that they passed through. But as unfamiliar as his reactions were to
Scott, he couldn’t help but find the other’s giddy expressions to be… somewhat endearing. Same
as he had when he’d given him the horn. It was an oddly nice feeling seeing Tango get this way.
His wonder at everything just seemed so genuine, which was even more surprising considering
everything that had happened to him within the past few months. It was as though there wasn’t a
thing in the world that could dull his attitude or make him jaded. Which was a trait Scott rarely
saw in anyone, himself especially.
It was a fairly short walk to get to where they needed to. Apparently, as Etho had pointed out,
they’d passed a portal that Grian had built at the edge of a lava pit in the overworld. They weren’t
sure whether he was still using it, but they did use it as a point of reference to know that they were
headed in the right direction. Another point of note was when the nether fortress became visible. It
seemed much bigger than any of the ones that had spawned in previous worlds. In a way, it seemed
to easily loom over everything else by comparison.
“Alright.” Cleo spoke up after a few more minutes of walking. “Here’s the first one.”
They were all staring at the side of a steep hill of netherrack. Scott eyed Cleo as she summoned a
lever, attached it to a seemingly random piece of rock, and pulled down on it. In an instant, the
netherrack in front of them began shifting, opening up to reveal a small, pre-dugout hole in the side
of the hill. Without hesitating, Cleo stepped right inside it and the rest of them followed.
“Uh, ‘first’…?” Tango asked skeptically before making his way inside. Scott was about to ask a
similar question before his attention was captured by the soft lighting coming from inside the dug-
out space that revealed an array of bookshelves framing the room.
“Woah.” He uttered, taking a look around. There wasn’t much inside the space, and yet
immediately, Scott knew exactly what it was for.
“Huh,” Tango breathed. Same as him, he’d been looking around the room. “Y’know, this does
seem like a pretty secure place to keep the table.”
Cleo nodded. “No one would expect it and I doubt Grian’s team would think to look in the walls.”
Scott frowned, peeling his eyes off the shelves to look back at Cleo. “But if we were to do a
monopoly and start bringing people here to enchant things, then wouldn’t they just be able to come
back and find it later? Maybe snatch it for themselves too?”
“Not necessarily.” Etho chimed in. “Because this isn’t the only spot we dug out.”
Tango raised an eyebrow. “Wait…”
“Yep.” Cleo finished. “There’s two other areas just like this located somewhere else in the nether.”
“We each dug one out ourselves last night. Each have their own set of bookshelves thanks to all the
leather we had from our cow farm. Also in the nether by the way.”
“Etho!” Cleo yelled, slapping him lightly on the shoulder.

“What?” The other shrugged. “We’re already giving them all the beef they could want. What
reason would they have to go looking for it?”
Cleo just sighed. “You know what? Good point.” She looked over to both of them. “Scott, Tango,
if we all die before you guys do, we’ll leave you the location of the cow farm in the will.”
Scott rolled his eyes, grinning. “ Thanks .”
“But anyway,” Etho went on. “as I was saying, even Cleo and Bdubs don’t know where I dug out
my location. Same thing goes for me with Bdubs. Only players who know where the spare ones
are right now is ourselves. So we were thinking that we could move the location of the table each
night after showing it to whoever decides to take us up on our deal. It may not be a full-proof plan,
but it’s less risky than keeping it in our inventories or at our bases. We just have to make sure not
to take the same people to the same locations so that no one ever really knows where it is.”
“But what if someone wants to use it more than three times?”
“Seems unlikely, assuming they were to enchant all their things at the same time, which would be
the most logical thing to do. But if that did end up happening, then we’d just make a new location
first then take them there after. Might take a while, but it can be done in less than an hour if we’re
quick.”
Scott gave it some thought. There really wasn’t much to it, and Cleo, Etho, and Bdubs did seem to
have put a good deal of effort into coming up with all of this.
“C’mon,” Cleo urged. “you guys already did your part in helping us raid Grian’s base. Let us do
our share now so we can both profit.”
Once again, he looked at Tango. And once again, Tango gave him everything he needed to know
without saying a word, simply shrugging and smiling to let Scott know that if he wanted to go
along with this then he’d be on board too.
Softly, Scott smiled back.
“Alright.” He said, turning his attention back to Cleo. “I guess we could try this out. Any
preference on what we should charge?”
“Diamonds, preferably.” Cleo stated. “Unless there’s something else you’ve been needing?”
Another look at Tango; the blaze gave a thoughtful glance back for a moment and then shook his
head.
“No.” Scott said.
“Alright then, diamonds it is.” Cleo said. “As for the amount, I trust you to haggle on it properly.
Whatever you come up with will probably be fine, so long as it can be split five ways.”
Scott took a quick look around the room. Everyone seemed to agreed on this outcome.
“So,” Tango spoke up. “Who are we inviting to use this first?”
“There’s plenty of time for us to meet up with both Impulse and Pearl’s teams today.” Bdubs said.
“But if both teams say yes, we should try to bring them here at different times in the day. Or
maybe one during the day and one at night if that’s doable?”
“Yeah, I can see what you’re getting at.” Tango laughed. “We wouldn’t want too many people here
at once. There’s always the possibility of them ganging up on us and snatching it.”
Cleo hummed, nodding. “So it’s settled then.” She said. “I can probably head over to Pearl’s base
sometime today. Bdubs, I assume you’d want to speak with Impulse’s group. And Etho-“
“Um…” Etho said suddenly. Scott turned his head towards him. He looked nervous all of a
sudden. “Actually, could I just sit this part out for now?” He continued speaking, noticeably
gripping at edge of his vest. “I- I don’t want to bother Pearl’s group for- uh- obvious reasons.”
Scott winced. How had he forgotten about that? Running into Lizzie was probably the last thing
Etho wanted to do. Though Scott wondered if he’d even so much as spoken to Joel since the game
began.
“-But, I also don’t want to go to the Skyscraper and speak with Impulse’s team about this.” He
finished, eyes now fixed on the ground.
“Well, what’s wrong with Impulse?” Cleo asked. “I thought you guys were on good terms?”
“We are.” Etho shot his head back up. “It’s Ren and Martyn I’m worried about.”
All eyes were now on him, Scott’s included. They all remained silent as if politely offering Etho
the floor.
“Think about it.” He went on. “Those two have been fighting nonstop since- well, y’know. And—
here we are, going to them with a sales pitch for using the enchanting table. You don’t think that
kind of sounds like…?”
For a second, the room was dead silent.
Then, it hit him.
This was exactly the kind of business that Ren and Martyn had going on during Third Life. The
funny roleplay they started that got them so close to each other in the first place. Scott recalled
everything that went down between them during that time. He felt sad looking back on it. Knowing
that they’d ended up in such an unfortunate situation—and that wasn’t even considering what he
knew now. What Jimmy had told him about Martyn being some kind of lie detector in the face of
an ex boyfriend who was still under the impression that he had any sort of chance of deceiving the
other. It left a bad taste in his mouth. Though thankfully, it had rarely crossed his mind after Jimmy
had told him due to how occupied he’d been with… well, everything.
“Oh…” Cleo breathed suddenly, likely having just come to the same conclusion that Scott had.
He couldn’t blame her or Etho for their sudden concern. He wouldn’t be one to blame anyone,
actually. He did end up burning down a build that him, Tango, and Jimmy had made just because it
somewhat resembled his and Jimmy’s hobbit hole from Third Life. Who’s to say that reminding
Ren and Martyn of Renchanting—even if unintentionally—wouldn’t make one or both of them
upset too? Or worse, lash out? It was certainly a possibility.
“That just—completely slipped my mind, actually.” Tango added.

“Yeah…” Bdubs muttered.
Scott suddenly felt breathless, like he was carrying a bunch of invisible weights on him. He
wondered if he was the only person in this room who really knew what was going on between the
two. He wondered if he should say anything—
No. No, Jimmy trusted him not to spill anything and he was going to stick to that. Despite how
tempting it was.
It was difficult, but Jimmy did have a point. Martyn had been holding out hope that Ren would
start telling the truth eventually. And as redundant as that seemed to be at this point, it wasn’t his
place to decide if and when their back-and-fourth argument should come to an end. That decision
was Martyn’s, and Martyn’s alone.
But god was it tempting!
But that wasn’t the only thing on Scott’s mind. Impulse was also with them. One of Tango’s ex
boyfriends.
—Yep. That piece of information still didn’t feel any less unbelievable to him than it did yesterday.
But he could dwell on that later.
Right now, his thoughts were on Jimmy and Tango. He’d told Jimmy that they would go and see
Impulse together at some point. Try to explain the context behind the situation he’d put Tango in
and maybe, hopefully, Impulse would stop ghosting him.
And then Jimmy died.
Scott bit his lip. Maybe he didn’t need Jimmy to follow through on it. Maybe he could just go and
speak to Impulse one-on-one?
It was weird of him to be thinking like this. Just a few days ago, he could have gone on an
excessive rant about how much he hated Tango for a solid hour. A day or two later, and he was
willing to speak kindly of him if only because it would make Jimmy happy. And now…
Scott looked at Tango. He was staring at the ground while clutching his arms tightly to his chest, a
worried look in his eyes.
— Now, he was going to follow through with this all on his own.
Because he wanted to.
I’ll go.” Scott spoke up, interrupting the silence.
“Wait- what?” Tango asked, poking his head up.
“I said I’ll go.” Scott repeated. “I’m fine with confronting them. Wouldn’t be the first time I did it”
“Well that’s exactly the problem though, isn’t it?” Cleo said, crossing her arms. “You helped take
Martyn and Impulse’s lives, remember? You’re probably the last person they’d want to see right
now.”
Scott made a waving motion with his hand. “Cleo, please. It’s been days. Plus we’re all green and
yellow. As long I don’t attack them—which I have no reason to do right now—I should be fine.”
The other paused, seeming as though she were considering it before speaking again. “If that’s
really what you want… then okay.” Cleo turned to her side. “Bdubs?”
Scott saw Bdubs blush slightly. “I might actually sit this one out too, now that you mention it.” He
said hesitantly. It appeared as though Etho wasn’t the only one who wanted to avoid getting
tangled up in some potential drama with Martyn and Ren.
“Oh come on now-“ Cleo whined.
“No, it’s fine.” Scott said insistently. “I’m fine going alone. Like I said, it’s not like I’ll be in any
real danger.”
The other sighed. “Alright then, I guess…”
“No.” Scott heard his teammate’s voice come from the side.
“Huh?” He asked.
“No, not ‘ alright ’” Tango said, speaking up and putting a hand to Scott’s shoulder. “Scott, could
we talk for a second?”
Before Scott could answer, Tango had both hands on each of his shoulders and was steering him
across the room till they were a few feet back out of the netherrack entrance. Scott heard Cleo let
out a snicker from behind him at the display. He promptly ignored it, letting Tango take him
wherever he apparently wanted to take him, turning around as soon as both their feet stopped
moving.
“Why do you want to talk with Impulse all of a sudden??” Tango said in a loud whisper.
“Who says I want to talk to Impulse?” Scott replied casually. “I just figured I’d take one for the
team since no one else wants to go.”
He saw Tango’s expression drop. “Scott…” He said anxiously.
Scott frowned. The blaze had apparently gotten to know him well enough at this point to be able to
sense what his motives were, and he was clearly more than a little worried about all this. Scott
decided he’d drop the sarcasm, if only for now. “Tango,” He said back. “I’m not gonna do or say
anything stupid, alright?”
“I never said you would-“ Tango cut himself off, sighing. “I should be the one doing this…”
Scott shook his head. “You’ll have plenty of time for that. Right now though, you have a valid
excuse to not confront him. I’m not claiming to know your ex better than you do, but if he’s still
not up for talking right now, I think it’s smart of you to want to give him some space and let him
cool down for a time.”
Tango’s brows furrowed. He didn’t appear any less distressed than he did a second ago. Scott put a
hand to his shoulder, trying to reassure him.
“Hey,” He spoke. “It’s okay.” He continued looking at the other warmly. “I know you don’t want
to go there right now. So just let me do this for you, yeah?”
Tango finally seemed to have calmed down at that, letting a short breath out as he straightened
himself up. “Okay.” He agreed.
Scott smiled. That seemed to settle things. Though he had one more thing to talk to Tango about.
“And…” He began again. “If you’re going to be visiting Pearl with the rest of the group, then
could you maybe tell her-?”
“Of course, Scott.” Tango said, answering him knowingly. “I know she still blames herself for
what happened with Jimmy. I’ll talk to her about it.”
“Thank you.” Scott finished.
“You two all square?” Cleo asked, suddenly yelling in their direction.
Scott turned to her, nodding. “Yep.”
The three went to walk over to them, following through the same exit they came from. Cleo flipped
the lever back up and Scott watched as the brimstone doors moved to close, making the hill appear
exactly as it was before safe for the lever, which she then promptly removed again.
Swiftly, the group began their walk back to the portal that let out to the lighthouse. Things seemed
lighter from there, more upbeat, in any case. Tango voiced his desire to go with Cleo, and Bdubs to
see Pearl’s team, to which the two of them eagerly accepted his company. As for Etho, he still
seemed to be understandably hell-bent on not going anywhere near either of the two bases—
especially Joel’s—and opted for hanging back to guard the lighthouse instead.
It was only when the lighthouse portal was back in sight that Scott saw Bdubs suddenly still in his
tracks. Confused, the rest of them stopped to look back at him, his face holding an expression of
shock, for some reason.
“Uh, guys?” Bdubs spoke hesitantly. “Did- did anyone actually remember to leave the table in the
room?”
There was a beat of silence.
Then, several groans and noises of frustration being let out at the same time.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Tango commented.
“There’s five of us.” Cleo said. “Five! And no one remembered??”
“We make a really sucky alliance, not gonna lie.” Etho laughed.
Scott sighed, quickly peeking into his own inventory before looking to everyone else. “Alright,
who has it?”
He saw Tango jolt suddenly. “Oop- looks like I do.” He said, manifesting the book in his hands
and holding it up. “Sorry about that guys.”
“No worries.” Cleo said. “We all forgot, same as you.”
There was some hesitancy in the group as everyone looked at each other, each of them wondering
what to do next.
“So…” Bdubs said. “should we just walk it all the way back? Or…?”
“Actually,” Scott spoke, an idea suddenly striking him. “I can just run it back on my own, if that’s
alright? I remember the coords and if I’m going to be speaking with Martyn’s team then I should
be heading off in that direction anyway. I’ll just exit through Grian’s portal on my way there.”
Once again, everyone looked around. There were a few nods and shrugs thrown about before a
silent consensus was reached.
“Okay…” Tango said, stepping forward to hand Scott the book. “If you’re really fine with doing
that.”
Scott took it from him, quickly storing it away. “Thanks.”
Tango didn’t move right away, simply standing there with a mixed expression on his face. In all
fairness Scott wasn’t in any hurry to move either. It seemed as though they were both realizing just
then that this was the first time they were going to be truly separate from each other since Jimmy’s
death.
He really shouldn’t be hesitating. It’s not as though he was actually afraid that Tango would
somehow hurt himself enough to knock him down to yellow. He was traveling in a group of three,
after all. And if anything, he’d proven himself to be more capable of being careful with his life than
Scott had this game. He trusted Tango to be fine on his own.
So why did he still not want him to leave?
“I guess—I’ll just see you back at the base then?” Tango spoke, eyes darting away from Scott.
Scott hummed in affirmation, trying to steer his thoughts somewhere else. “Definitely.”
“Stay safe, okay?” The other said, now moving to step back. Though for just a second, he turned
his head back around to look at Scott, smiling cheekily at him. “I don’t wanna die cause of your
clumsiness.”
Scott sputtered out a short breath, surprised, but was quick to return the grin. “Well you’d better not
get shot by any stray arrows.” He teased.
“Only if you don’t go running off into a ravine!” Tango fired back.
“Okay-“ Scott laughed. “You’re the one who nearly ran us both off of one just last night-!”
“Guys?” Cleo interrupted. Scott noticed she already had one foot in the portal and an impatient
look on her face.
“Sorry.” Tango quickly said, walking over to follow her lead. He took one last look at Scott before
passing through the portal completely.
“I’ll see you soon.”
Scott nodded. An unexplained feeling of loss suddenly hitting him the second Tango finally
vanished from his sight completely. He stood there for a moment longer, as if expecting the blaze
to come back out. But of course, he didn’t.
Scott bit his lip, finally turning around to walk back the way he came. He had a job to do now.
Tango was safe with Cleo’s group and there was no reason to be thinking of him anymore.
So why, just why—could he not get him out of his head?
Chapter End Notes
If anyone accidentally saw me title this as “Enchanted Addition” instead of “Edition”

no you didn’t :)
Scott - Green
Jimmy - X
Tango - Yellow
Cleo - Green
Bdubs - Yellow
Etho - Green
Grian - Green
Scar - Yellow
Bigb - Red
Ren - Green
Martyn - Yellow
Impulse - Yellow
Pearl - Yellow
Joel - Green
Lizzie - Yellow
Us
Chapter Summary
Scott runs into Grian while in the nether. He goes to Impulse’s base and proceeds to
both do AND say something stupid. Him and Ren make an agreement.
Chapter Notes
Idk what to say other than this chapter ended up being a lot longer than I thought it
would be. Enjoy?
It had officially gotten past the point of weird and was now what Scott had considered to be just
downright creepy.
It had been about ten minutes and even still, all he could think about was Tango. Scott found
himself speed-walking to where he needed to go, the only thought process behind this action being
that the faster he was able to get everything done, the sooner he could see his teammate again.
Why exactly did he want to see his teammate again? He didn’t know. Maybe it was because he was
lonely…after being separated from people for all of ten minutes. Or maybe it was because he felt
scared being alone—only, if that were the case, he wouldn’t have volunteered to go and do this on
his own in the first place.
Well, maybe he really did just like the guy?
The idea still frustrated Scott to no end. Since when did ‘not hating’ Tango turn into liking him?
They weren’t friends. If he wasn’t sure of that before, then he definitely was now, after everything
he heard Tango say to him while he thought he was sleeping.
Scott began his walk again. This time, at a more normal pace. Who did Tango think he was
anyway? Did he think that talking to him while he was asleep would relieve some kind of burden
he was feeling? Cause it shouldn’t have. No, his thoughts on this were the same as they were
yesterday. They could never be friends. Not with their past. Not with that huge fucking obstacle in
the way that will likely never be fixed.
Though, that still didn’t necessarily mean that he was incapable of liking him.
This was all so insane. Their entire relationship was insane. They shouldn’t have worked so well
together like this, but they did. And that was what scared Scott so much. What was going to happen
to them after this game? Would he slowly go back to hating Tango? Would Tango hate him? Or
maybe they’d just stop talking to each other altogether, making every little interaction that they did
end up having after this the most awkward thing in the world.
Just like how him and Jimmy ended up.
No- nononono—he couldn’t do that again. He couldn’t end up like that with another person. He
just couldn’t-
Scott jumped suddenly, hearing the cry of a ghast coming directly from his left. The ghast flew
upward, spitting a fireball at him which he dodged. Scott took out his bow and fired an arrow at the
thing, hitting it dead between the eyes.
“Jesus…” Scott whispered, catching his breath. He watched as a single crystal teardrop fell from
from the sky and on to the ground a short distance away from him. Slowly, he made his way over
to pick it up. He held it in his hands, observing it. He didn’t think he’d ever get used to holding
these things; they were always so much heavier than they looked.
Sighing, Scott pocketed the item and continued walking. Potions weren’t exactly allowed in these
games, but he still figured he could find some use for it. No harm in keeping it, after all.
The hill they’d all been to just a short while ago was now in sight. Scott took out some basic items,
crafting a simple lever in his hands as he walked up to the wall of netherrack.
“Hope I don’t break any of this…” he muttered, taking a few small tries at placing and pulling the
lever before he finally found the correct area of netherrack that Cleo had placed it on last time. Just
like that, the rock began to move again, exposing a small entrance. Scott walked in, summoning
the table from his inventory and sticking it right in the middle of the room. He watched as the book
began to float and open up, absorbing a series of different spells and enchantments from each of the
bookshelves.
He smiled, satisfied. It looked like his work was done here. With that, Scott walked back out the
entrance, and pulled the lever back down, ensuring that the gateway was fully closed. But just as he
was about to break the lever back off the side of the hill, he heard squealing coming from behind
him.
Turning around, Scott saw a large hoglin eyeing him.
Shoot.
He stood there, frozen, before the thing charged at him. Scott managed to bring up a shield just in
time to feel the creature slam into it fiercely, nearly knocking the wind out of his lungs. He was
given a moment to regain his bearings when it backed up to go for another charge. That was when
he swapped in his axe and began swinging it at the mob with all his might. Why did everything
seem to be after him today??
Thankfully, he hadn’t taken much damage by the time the fight was over. Scott let out a sigh of
relief and picked up the meat that had dropped, turning in the other direction to walk back to the
portal.
But that brief fight only allowed him so much respite from his thoughts.
He hadn’t been so worried about it when he’d offered to go talk to Impulse, but now that he had
actually decided to follow through with it, Scott found himself struggling to come up with what
exactly he was going to say. Should he just start with how Tango got to talking to him in the first
place? On one end, that might make Impulse less upset since it technically wasn’t Tango’s choice
to want to distract him. But on the other end, it didn’t do anything to disprove the fact that Tango
had talked to him simply out of obligation, despite the context behind said obligation.
Jeez. This was going to be tough.
Scott had been deep in his own thoughts for a short while, still walking in the direction of where
he’d last seen Grian’s portal. He figured he should be coming up on it any minute now. This path
did look familiar to him, after all. In fact, looking just up ahead, he was able to see the large,
looking fortress in the sky. That proved he was headed in the right direction.
Scott had his eyes fixed on the structure for just a moment. But as soon as he brought his gaze back
down to ground level, something else caught his attention.
He stopped walking immediately, locking eyes with another player.

Grian.
The avian seemed to have just come from around a corner of one of the fortress pillars. For a
second, they both just stood there, staring at each other. The surprise on Grian’s end seemed equal
to that of his own.
“What are you doing here?” Grian spoke, starting to walk forward again.
Scott blinked slowly. “What am I doing… in the nether?” He repeated back. “Well, I could ask
you the same thing.”
“I asked first.” Grian pressed.
Scott scoffed. “And I have no reason to answer you.”
They continued eyeing each other. Slowly, Scott’s gaze met with what was right behind the other.
That looming fortress.
“I see you’ve just been to the fortress.” He said, eyes fixed back in Grian.
“What?” Grian asked, seemingly surprised. “How did you know that??”
Scott raised an eyebrow. “Um, you just looked like you were walking back from it, given the
direction you were headed. Am I wrong?”
Grian didn’t answer, instead, doing the same thing with his eyes and looking in the direction that
Scott had been walking in. “What direction were you coming in from anyway?” He asked. “I don’t
recall there being any portals over there.”
“Warped forest.” Scott lied. “I was just killing some enderman for pearls.”
He tried not to give anything suspicious away in his tone. He figured it was best to lie in any case.
Although it was still unlikely that Grian would manage to find the location of the enchanting room
given nothing other than a general direction to go in. And that was if he even knew what to be
looking for—which he didn’t.
“If you say so…” Grian smirked. His gaze then turned over to the tool that Scott was holding.
“Nice enchanted pic you got there.” He teased, making Scott roll his eyes.
Then, he asked something unexpected.
“Where’s your partner in crime, by the way?”
Scott flinched. Was that what he saw them as? Well, Tango was certainly… something—to him.
But there was no need to go and call them “partners” in any sense of the way.
“God, so many questions with you.” Scott replied, deflecting the question.
“Well, I am a pretty curious person.” Grian grinned. “I see a button, I gotta press it; I see a lever, I
have to pull it—you know how it go-“
He suddenly cut himself off, opening his mouth wider to let out a surprisingly long yawn. Scott
watched the other suspiciously as he groaned and rubbed at his eyes in a frustrated manner.
Scott recognized these motions in an instant.
“Grian…” He paused, looking him over. “Are you- are you okay?”
Grian peered up at him. “Hm?” He hummed. “Y-yeah. I’m fine?”
His reply sounded less like an answer and more like a question. Now, Scott was really concerned.
He took a moment to look Grian over once more. His eyes seemed fine, no bags or dark circles.
Though those could easily be gotten rid of with the consumption of extra food. But what food
wouldn’t hide would be how someone walked, talked, carried themselves around… Anyone who
hadn’t been sleeping would feel just as tired as they would whether they had eaten or not. And
Grian looked as though he was fighting to keep his eyes open, like he could barely stand upright.
“No you’re not.” Scott said bluntly, taking a step forward. “Grian, have you… have you slept since
I last saw you?” He asked worriedly.
For just a second, he saw Grian’s brows furrow, something worrisome flashed through his eyes
before his expression changed back to hold that sly grin of his.
“Now who’s asking all the questions?” The avian teased. He took a few steps of his own closer to
Scott, gesturing with his hand to have him come and follow. C’mon.” He continued, starting up his
walk again. “Let’s walk.” Scott sighed, deciding he might as well follow the other seeing as he
didn’t seem to care all that much about harming him. “You were on your way to my portal, weren’t
you? Well I’m headed there too. And if you want, you can ask me as many questions as you need
to until we get there…”
To be fair, he Grian did let him ask all of the questions he wanted to. Answering them, however?
That was a different story.
From what he was able to figure out, Grian was lying about two things. 1) he was most certainly
not fine. And 2) he was definitely not off raiding chests at the fortress like he’d apparently claimed
he was. Scott was able to recall over half a dozen players who had made the Terrible Fortress
advancement thus far. If there were any chests to be raided, their contents would be long gone by
now.
So what was Grian doing at the fortress? And come to think of it, had this been where he’d been
going off to most of the time when no one on the server (including his own teammates) would see
him for days at a time? Scott recalled Grian having made the nether advancement quite early on
day one, which was where he must have obtained that sac of gold he’d given them back then. Had
he just been here this whole time? Why??
“After you.” Grian gestured as they reached the portal. Scott eyed him for a moment before
reluctantly stepping through cleanly to the other side.
“Surprised there isn’t any lava on the other end.” He said, voice masking his own genuine relief.
Grian laughed, pulling the other half of his body through. “I might have trapped it if I’d known you
were gonna be here. But even I don’t tend to think that far ahead with my plans.”
They were both fully out of the portal when Scott turned around to face the avian once more. “And
what exactly is your plan here, Grian?” He asked somewhat firmly.
Grian smiled innocently. “Whatever do you mean by that?”
Scott clenched his fists, once again, quickly running out of patience with the guy. “You know what
I mean.” He spat. “Why would you go through all the effort of organizing a new game and
rounding us all up into teams with people we-“
He paused, breath catching all of a sudden.
With people he what? “ Hated ”? Obviously, he couldn’t even say that anymore. He didn’t hate
Tango. Lord knows he could never hate Jimmy, as much as he’d tried to.
So who was he even suppose to be angry at, at this point?
Grian watched him eagerly, as if he already knew exactly what he was thinking and fully expected
him to hesitate on his next sentence. This of course, only made Scott even more frustrated. Though
he wasn’t entirely sure if his frustrations were even fully directed at Grian anymore.
The other smiled cockily, turning around to walk away.
“…Have a nice day, Scott.”
Scott simply stood there, completely stunned.
Scott grit his teeth as he continued to walk. The reflex wasn’t so much due to the cold, more so it
was due to his own anger over what Grian had said.
“He thinks he’s so smug.” Scott seethed. To think he was even concerned for his well-being just a
short while ago! Maybe ending up paired with Tango wasn’t as bad as he thought it was going to
be, but that still didn’t make what Grian did right. It was manipulative. And Scott wouldn’t be
surprised if he’d known from the very start that he wouldn’t have wanted to leave the game if it
risked harming Jimmy. Scott was already angry at him from the get-go, of course, but knowing that
with certainty would just be the cherry on top of his loathing.
Scott felt the ground sharply incline as he began making his way up into the mountain biome, soft
snow now crunching beneath his feet. He hadn’t been here since the beginning of the game, when
Jimmy was still around. And he hadn’t wanted to come back here for any particular reason. Until
now.
He passed the small hill they’d hid behind; the one he shoved Tango out of. Scott frowned,
deciding that staring at it for too long would only bother him. He moved on.
The wheat field was still there, as was the garden with all the flowers in it, although some were
now in the process of wilting. They may have had the torches around them to keep the ground
warm, but they clearly weren’t being watered, or properly taken care of in any way for that matter.
Scott continued forward, finally getting a good look at the Skyscraper up close. Some things had
been changed since he’d last seen it. For one, the team—or maybe just one of them—had
constructed a large balcony at the edge of one of the higher-up floors.
The second change of note was the bubble elevators that he could see through the windows,
running up and down the spaces in between the central spiral staircase. Scott let out a sigh of relief
at the sight of it. If he was going to go and talk to every member of this team, he was thankful to at
least not have to go running up all those stairs all over again. He didn’t need to relive yet another
bad memory from this place.
Hesitantly, Scott walked up the rest of the way towards the front door, knocking on it hard. He
waited a few moments.
No answer.
He knocked again. Still no answer. Scott groaned. Of course no one could hear him from outside.
If anyone was even home at all, they could all be on any floor of this ridiculously enormous
building.
Without even thinking it through, Scott tried the door handle, and surprisingly, found that the
entrance was unlocked. He checked for tripwires or pressure plates first, remembering what
happened to Cleo the last time she’d tried to break into someone’s base. Seeing that there were
none, Scott took a cautious step forward, looking around for people before making his way even
farther into the building. He looked upward through the small gaps in between the bubble
elevators. Viewing the floors above was like placing two mirrors across from each other. They
simply appeared to go on forever.
Deciding that there was no other way to do this, Scott inhaled a lung-full of air and proceeded to
shout to the floors above him.
“Anyone HOME??” He yelled, cupping the edges of his mouth with his hands.
There was a beat of silence. And then, about 10 stories up, he saw the small figure of Ren poke his
head over the edge of the room.
Scott could just barely make out the features of his face, but upon making eye contact with him, he
could still tell when Ren’s expression had gone from plain confusion to ‘oh shit’.
“Nope!” Ren quickly yelled as he marched his way down the stairs and onto the same level Scott
was on. “Nononono— NO”
It was when he’d finally finished his decent that Scott was able to see the other fully. Even with his
sunglasses on, Ren’s annoyed state was still very clear to him.
“…Hi?” Scott said, chancing an awkward smile.
Ren lifted an arm and pointed directly to the door he’d come through. “ Leave.”
Scott sighed. “Relax.” He said, holding his hands up in defense. “I’m not here to start another
fight.”
Ren just repeated the pointing motion more fiercely.

Scott ignored him, glancing back up at the new features of the building. “I like the elevators.” He
spoke sincerely.
Ren seemed to finally bring his arm down, the stiffness in his body going away ever so slightly.
“What do you want?” He asked defeatedly.
Scott cut right to the chase, not wanting to waste the moment of calmness the other had afforded
him. “Me and the rest of my alliance were able to get our hands on the enchanting table.”
Ren seemed surprised, before relaxing completely this time. “…I was with Scar a short while ago.”
He stated. “He did mention something about all that. What happened last night with you and your ‘
alliance ’. ”
“Well, we still have it.” Scott affirmed. “And we were looking to share it with everyone else.”
Ren seemed intrigued at this ever so slightly. Before Scott finally said what he was dreading to.
“—For a price, I mean.”
And… there it was.
Ren’s expression dropped immediately. Anyone who wasn’t a Life player would have just assumed
the reaction to have stemmed from hearing that he’d have to pay for enchantments. But Scott knew
better. He knew that Ren was currently thinking over everything that happened during Third Life.
All the fun memories he’d made with Martyn. Everything they didn’t have anymore.
Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all…
Ren spoke after a moment, rubbing at his eyes under his sunglasses. “Dude…” He said, voice just
barely shaking. “Please, just go.”
Scott hesitated. It wasn’t as though he was desperate to make any deals with the guy, but he did
feel guilty leaving him like this. “But-“
“I’ll think about it.” Ren said, cutting him off. “I just…”
Scott swallowed hard; he thought about Martyn. This was insane. It felt like betrayal. All he had to
do was say a single sentence and everything would be revealed to Ren. It’s not as though having
special abilities was actually uncommon. He had them, after all. Ren had them. He probably
wouldn’t even need to do any convincing with Ren to get him to believe that Martyn had the ability
to tell when he was lying. And that was if he even questioned it to begin with.
Fucking hell—there it was again, that overwhelming temptation to blurt out everything he knew.
But he couldn’t. He couldn’t because it would be unfair to Jimmy, to Martyn…
Scott let out a long breath. Maybe he didn’t need to give away everything. Maybe he could just
guide Ren in the right direction with the information that he already knew. All things considered,
he had to have known on at least some level that his repeated lying was getting him absolutely
nowhere.
Calmly, Scott breathed in again, staring straight ahead at Ren. “Martyn’s still mad at you.” He
spoke, seeing the other’s head suddenly perk up. “Right?”
Ren’s gloomy expression was quick to worsen. Scott watched as he wrapped his arms around
himself awkwardly. “Ah…” He breathed. “So you did hear all that, didn’t you?”
Scott frowned, shaking his head. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop.” He answered. “My intention last
time was solely to murder you. I promise.”
That thankfully pulled a laugh out of Ren, if only a sad one.
“…Y’know—I really don’t mean to overstep here,” Scott continued. “but all this fighting between
you two has been going on for so long. Don’t you think it might be time to—I don’t know…”
Scott chose his next words carefully, searching for something that wouldn’t give away what he
knew.
“-Free him from all this?” He settled on.
Ren looked up at him, curious. “What do you mean by that?”
Scott shrugged unsuspectingly. “I’m just saying, if it’s been six months and nothing has changed
between you two, maybe it’s time for you to try something else with him. Go a different route,
y’know?”
Ren stared back at the ground, seeming to consider what Scott was saying.
“I know you still love him.” Scott went on. “So don’t you think he deserves better than to be
trapped in this back-and-fourth argument forever? Don’t you want to give him closure on this?
Even if doing that might be painful?”
Ren swallowed. “I-“ He paused. “I think I understand.”
He looked up, smiling at Scott sadly. “I’ll- I’ll see if I can bring myself to- to free him, as you
said…”
Internally, Scott felt relieved to hear those words. He really did find this whole argument between
Ren and Martyn to be a little ridiculous. But to some extent, he found himself genuinely hoping
that they might manage to salvage what they had left.
That’d at least be one step up from how his own relationship ended…
“You know-“ Ren spoke suddenly, pulling Scott from his thoughts. “I never thought you
unreasonable for how you reacted after Double Life.”
Scott flinched. He hadn’t expected the other to bring something like that up all of a sudden.
“None of us did.” Ren continued. And Scott couldn’t help but listen intently. “Tango’s my friend.
So—of course I felt conflicted. But we were all just- just dealing with our own things then—and it
was all so confusing…”
Scott’s gaze softened. This was definitely still unexpected—but not unwelcome.
“That’s-“ Scott sighed. “That’s good to know. Thank you.”
Ren bit his lip. “Did you… forgive him at some point? By any chance?”
Scott raised an eyebrow, signaling him to be more specific.
“Tango. I don’t know… You guys just seem so okay being in each other’s company from what
I’ve heard. But of course, I don’t want to assume anything.”
Calmly, Scott shook his head. “I haven’t.”
He saw Ren’s expression falter slightly before he silently nodded.
“I don’t know if I ever really will.” Scott added. “But that doesn’t mean I have to hate him either.”
Ren smiled at him sadly. “You’re a better man than I would have been if I were in that position.”
He stated. There didn’t seem to be anything underlying in his words. Just the honest truth.
Ren should really try that out on Martyn sometime…
“Is Impulse here?” Scott asked. It’s not as though he wasn’t invested in what Ren had to say, but he
did suddenly remember why he had actually offered to come here.
“Huh?” Ren asked before the question seemed to click for him. “Oh! Yes, I believe he did just
come back a short while ago.”
“Could I talk to him?”

“About… the enchanting table?”
Scott rubbed his shoulder, awkwardly, not wanting to lie. “About a few things.” He replied. And
that seemed a decent enough answer to Ren.
“Yeah.” He said. “I mean, he’d be just a few floors higher up than I was. You probably remember
from the last time you were here, eh?”
Scott laughed. He was glad the other still held no hard feelings for the previous event. “Yeah, I
suppose I do have a good estimate.”
Ren jumped suddenly. “Oh!” He said. How about you use his elevator?”
With that, he directed him to the bubble elevator that would take him up to Impluse’s room. Scott
stepped into it, the water feeling oddly nice, as it was heated and breathable thanks to the bubbles.
He relaxed his body, letting the familiar feeling of an upward current take him to where he needed
to go.
Before Scott knew it, he was stepping back out and into a different room. He immediately felt the
blast of a warm vent above him blowing a hard gust of air over where he was standing and drying
him off near instantaneously. Scott had to hand it to whoever’s idea it was to install the elevators.
This was far more pleasant than that strenuous journey he had to make up the stairs before.
Scott observed his surroundings. He recalled briefly passing this part of the tower on his way back
down, but he never actually bothered to take in the details of it. There were a few chests and
furnaces lying around, a small bookshelf, a large bed, and most notably, the balcony that Scott had
seen from outside. It was there that Scott also found Impulse.
Impulse wasn’t facing him, but he was standing off to the side, seemingly gazing over the edge of
the balcony railing. Scott opened his mouth, nearly announcing his presence before halting for a
moment as he further observed the other’s demeanor. Scott only now noticed that he had a comm in
his hands. He looked to be reading the chat.
He looked sad.
The reality of who Impulse was hit him all over again. This was Tango’s long-time ex. The person
who’s known him for years. Who was equally involved in the drama that occurred on their server.
It was no wonder he’d been so quick to feel abandoned by Tango. He was probably abandoned by
everyone not so long ago.
Scott felt a bit lighter in that moment. Maybe this wouldn’t be such a difficult task for him. At the
very least, he understood just a little bit more about the guy and why he was suddenly acting the
way that he was. As he’d said to Jimmy before, his previous despise towards Tango only put him
in that much more of a position to validly vouch for him. If he of all people could give Tango a
chance to act better, then why couldn’t an actual friend of his do the same? Of course, the decision
to forgive him was ultimately up to Impulse. But simply explaining Tango’s situation to him
couldn’t hurt.
Right?
Scott calmed himself, speaking up to get the other’s attention.
“I like what you did with the place.” He said calmly. He saw Impulse’s eyes widen as he swiftly
turned his head to look at him. “I much prefer the elevator to the stairs, not gonna lie.” Scott
laughed.
Impulse didn’t seem very pleased.
“What are you doing here?” He asked, confused.
“Well, I’m definitely not here to murder you again. That’s for sure.” Scott replied, rubbing the
back of his neck. “Sorry about that, by the way.”
Impulse’s eyes seemed to soften, his overall expression shifting back to that sad look Scott had seen
him wearing. “It’s fine.” He insisted, not even making an effort to walk away or tell him to leave.
He simply went back to gazing off the edge of his balcony. “It’s part of a game, right?” He spoke
quietly. “This is all just a game to everyone, so—who cares?”
Scott frowned. Slowly, he made his way over to Impulse, standing close to the same railing he was
leaning on. “That’s something I did want to talk to you about, actually.” His eyes shifted, trying to
find the right words to say. “I just—wanted to let you know that what happened back then was all
my idea, and that Tango really wasn’t trying to-“
“You can save your breath.” Impulse said, cutting him off. “Bdubs already tried to get me to talk to
Tango last night.”
Scott’s mouth nearly dropped open at that. “Wait- really?” He asked, stuttering. Since when had
Bdubs decided to do that? Did Tango ask him to? Did Jimmy??
“Yeah.” Impulse went on. “Before he vanished, anyway.”
Scott cringed, recalling how Bdubs ended up taking the fall when Cleo accidentally blew herself
up.
“He seemed really determined to convince me not to lash out at Tango over it… and maybe he’s
right.”
Impulse breathed in deeply, his voice cracking slightly.
“But I just- I just don’t want to hear from him right now. Not right after what happened.” He had
now turned to look right at Scott again. Scott found himself surprisingly unnerved by the sudden
eye contact. “If he wants to speak to me so badly, then he can wait. Just like I did for him.”
Impulse laughed sadly. “Except he obviously never had any plans on doing that to begin with.”
Well shoot. Even Scott couldn’t blame him for acquiring that sort of mentality. “You can’t say that
for sure…” He argued, still trying to sway his opinion nonetheless.
“I can after half a year.” Impulse muttered bitterly.
Scott put a hand to the railing, gripping it. “You know—the only reason me and Jimmy raided the
tower was because I wanted to go after you, until Tango practically begged me not to.”
Impulse sneered. “Probably because he didn’t want to interact with me in any way.”
He stayed silent for a moment after that, having gone back to looking over the horizon. He seemed
to be back in his own head. And so was Scott, as he tried to think of something else he might be
able to say.
“Bdubs told me he was forced into talking with me.” Impulse said suddenly, saving Scott the
effort. “How did that happen?”
Scott clenched the railing even harder, feeling guilty as he replayed what happened in his head. “I
made him.” He replied softly. “Told him that if we weren’t going to attack you, then he should
make himself useful and get you out of the way.”
“Ah.” The other said. “So that’s what happened. He did seem pretty frantic during all that.”
Scott grimaced. He tried not to picture what that might have looked like in his head. “Impulse, I
may not know him like you do, and I’m not entirely sure what it is he said to you before you both
died, but do you really believe that he meant none of it?” Scott leaned into the other’s line of sight,
trying to get him to take him more seriously. “He really does want to talk to you more. He’s made
at least that much clear to me during the time I’ve spent with him.”
Impulse looked at him again, but his response regarded a different subject completely. “Why are
you defending him?” He asked sternly.
Scott blinked. “What?”
“Come to think of it” Impulse went on. “—why are you friends with him now?”
Scot felt a faint blush tint his cheeks at the question. Why was everyone so curious about his
relationship with Tango all of a sudden? First Joel with his question in the chat, then Ren, and now
this??
“Okay-“ Scott choked out, face still feeling heated. “First of all, we’re not ‘ friends’ -“
“You sure treat him like one.” Impulse insisted. “I’m sure I’m not the only one picking up on it. I
do still read the chat, you know.”
Well, he was at least right about that first part…

“You stole a horn for him, you’ve come back here so you could try and get me to talk to him
again…”
“Wha- okay well- that’s not the only reason I came here-“
“-And that’s not even mentioning the fact that you could have left this game at any time, but
didn’t.” Impulse finished, his gaze now feeling as though it were burning him. “You really did
seem as though you wanted to in the very beginning. What changed, Scott?”
Scott took a step back, still feeling overwhelmed by the initial question.
“What are you playing at?”
He swallowed, not sure how to answer that. What was Impulse even asking him? It’s not as though
he was planning anything. Not like there was any specific reason as to why he was suddenly acting
so different around his teammate.
He just… liked Tango.
“That’s none of your business.” Scott spewed out, trying to demonstrate an equal amount of
assertiveness in the face of all these questions.
“Oh…” Impulse breathed, his reaction calm and expecting. “So I was right.”
Scott decided then and there that they were both on different pages. What the heck did Impulse
think he was “ right ” about??
“This is still about your ex boyfriend, isn’t it?”
Well excuse him.
“What the heck are you talking about?” Scott sneered. Impulse’s expression shifted into one of
confusion. Then, he relaxed again.
“Scott… It’s fine.” He insisted. “I won’t tell anyone—and I certainly don’t blame you for trying
this to begin with-“
“I’ll ask you one more time.” Scott said, running out of patience. “What the hell do you think it is
I’m ‘playing at’?”
There it was, the confused look again. “You-“ Impulse paused. He seemed to be searching Scott’s
face for a tell. Something that said he was faking his ignorance.
He wasn’t faking it.
“You’re just trying to befriend Tango so you can get closer to Jimmy… Aren’t you?”
Scott froze suddenly. He felt his stomach drop as the implications behind those words registered in
his head.
Now, it was his turn to look confused.
“You’re serious?” Scott grinned nervously, trying his best to play off what the other was implying.
“I broke up with him forever ago. Why would I be trying to get close to him at all?”
“You tell me.” Impulse shrugged. “My guess is that you’re hoping he would have started getting
tired of Tango by now.”
Scott’s eyes widened. “Tired of…?” He muttered under his breath, confused. He might have hoped
for that earlier into the breakup, a large part of him still did hope for it, but now, the idea seemed
so out of place to him it was almost comedic. Tango loved Jimmy. He’d given up everything to be
with him. And Jimmy… well, he certainly didn’t seem like he was going to be getting tired of
Tango any time soon, at least not from what Scott had seen. They just couldn’t keep their hands off
each other, got along so seamlessly, not to mention how absolutely pissed they’d both get
whenever the other was hurt in any way. Even anything that might be considered a fight between
them seemed to cool down within a matter of seconds. They were each other’s anchor, their
soulmate. They made each other happy.
And as of right now, Scott had no problem admitting that.
Scott continued listening to Impulse ramble, growing more confused with every word he heard.
“You know how it would probably play out.” The other spoke casually. “You get Tango to like
you, he drops his guard and lets you get closer to Jimmy—which is completely possible by the
way. I know for a fact that Tango‘s pretty quick to trust people. Or at least… he was—But after
that, Jimmy might start wanting you back…”
The way Impulse had phrased it… It was as if it were the most obvious thing in the world to him.
As if it would have been stupid to assume anything else. Had this been what everyone else had
assumed as well? Were all the other players secretly thinking the same thing of him? That he not
only wanted Jimmy back, but would be willing to do something so underhanded to get closer to
him??
Scott had never even considered it. But now that he had… This game—it really would have been
the perfect opportunity for him to try something like that. Tango and Jimmy would have had to
have been close to him the entire time because of how the teams were arranged. He could have
tried to get close to Jimmy in the beginning, but if he’d done anything too forward, Tango would
have noticed and gotten in the way of it. And now, Jimmy was gone, so the next best person he
could use to try to get to him would be Tango.
Of course, he could have just approached Jimmy on Empires if those were really his intentions. It’s
not as though Jimmy had ever pushed him away. He’d only avoided him, if you could really even
call it that. Not that Impulse knew that, of course. Though he sure as hell talked as though he knew
everything.
But then again, he was right to think that he wanted Jimmy back. Scott wondered how he of all
people was able to figure it out.
“-But I mean, as I said, I wouldn’t blame you if you were trying something like that.” Impulse
continued. Scott just stood there, his brain firing off a million signals at once as he tried to process
what was being said.
“You haven’t been sleeping.”
“It’s because of Jimmy, isn’t it?”

Cleo had asked him about Jimmy earlier. Why was he just now remembering this? Maybe Tango
hadn’t been able to figure out he still had feelings for his ex just because he was close to him the
entire game. Maybe he was just terrible at hiding his secret. He couldn’t fool himself, Tango knew,
Impulse knew, Grian and Cleo had probably figured it out long before Trust Life even started…
What was next? Did Jimmy know too somehow??
“You’re not fooling anyone.”
Had he ever fooled even a single person to begin with?
Not wanting to let his anxiousness show, Scott tried to focus back on Impulse.
“Take it from me,” He sighed, still speaking calmly. “I do believe that Tango really is attached to
him, but I wouldn’t doubt that there’s something brewing under the surface with their relationship
as well.”
Scott furrowed his brows at that. He wanted to assume that most of what Impulse was saying right
now was just his lingering anger at Tango talking. But regardless, he couldn’t have been more
wrong about all of this.
“Don’t tell him I said this, but if anything, I’m sure Jimmy’s bound to break up with him any day
now.”
Scott bit his tongue. Part of him wanted to correct him, but another part wanted to know just how
many twisted things Impulse thought were true.
“-It is pretty obvious that he only stuck with him because you’d already left.”
He did not just say that. Wow. On some level, Scott knew that was meant to have been a
compliment. And maybe a few days ago, he would have taken it as such. He would have figured
that he was clearly the better option. That Jimmy should have chosen him. But he didn’t, and since
he’d broken things off, his ex was left to settle for who was left.
But he knew better. Jimmy didn’t settle. He hated when the people he cared about suffered and
would never knowingly make someone he loved feel like the second option. Scott knew that. And
so, that comment brought him nothing but anger.
“And as for Tango,” The other went on. “well, he told me that he loved his partner and he really
did seem sincere, but considering everything that happened on Hermitcraft-“
Impulse’s breath hitched. He shut his mouth immediately.
“I’m sorry.” He muttered, taking a second to look away. “I shouldn’t be telling you this.”
Well there’s another thing he didn’t know; Scott knew exactly what he was talking about. He was
aware of everything Impulse had been through.
For a moment, he felt a hint of sympathy return.
“But seriously,” Impulse said, his voice picking back up. “let’s just say that given recent events, I
have a pretty good feeling that Jimmy is probably one more case of drama away from breaking up
with Tango and going back to you.”
Aaaand—then it was gone again.
“Of course—I wouldn’t want that for Tango. I’m still mad at him, yeah, but its not like I want him
to hurt. But there’s only so much a person can take before they decide a relationship just isn’t
worth it anymore.”
Impulse closed his eyes, shaking his head.
“All I’m saying, is that if I were you, I wouldn’t worry too much about trying to befriend Tango-“
“Shut up.”
As soon as he’d said it, he nearly choked. Scott hadn’t expected to be this angry. Impulse clearly
wasn’t trying to antagonize him. But still, his entire demeanor just didn’t sit well with him. He
knew nothing about what he was talking about. It was baffling, upsetting, and as long as he was
being honest with him now, Scott figured he’d see this through to the end.
“I- I’m sorry-?” Impulse said, sporting his own look of surprise.
Scott clenched his jaw. “Literally—shut up or I swear to-“
He cut himself off, trying to hold back. Oh god. Now he’d started. The words were flowing. He
couldn’t stop.
“First of all—“
He felt insulted by what he’d heard.
“—do you actually believe—for a second—that I would stoop so low as to manipulate Tango like
that just to get closer to Jimmy?”
He was insulted on Jimmy’s behalf.
“And that Jimmy’s so shallow that he’d break up with someone he loves just because of some
drama that you and Tango’s ex started??”
And on Tango’s.
“And do you actually believe that there’s nothing to like about Tango? That the only reason I act
like I don’t hate him anymore is because I want something from him and not because I-“
He hesitated with that last part, deciding not to finish it and quickly moved on instead.
“-I mean—come on! You’re literally the one who dated the guy! You of all people should know
what there is to like about him!”
Impulse looked even more surprised at those last few sentences. Scott was quick to realize his slip-
up there. Impulse clearly had no idea he knew that him and Tango were a thing before, nor that
they had a mutual ex. Oops.
“I- how did you-?” Impulse breathed, eyes darting back and fourth. Of course, he probably had
questions about that, but that clearly wasn’t the most damning thing Scott had yelled just then.
“Okay,” Impulse said, setting the topic to the side momentarily. “maybe you’ve gotten closer to
him than I thought you did…”
Scott continued eyeing him angrily, feeling somewhat bad about how he snapped, yet recognizing
that he was far too deep into this bit to let it go now.
“Listen,” Impulse said, holding a hand up in defense. “I didn’t mean to insult anyone here. I’m just
saying, the way they ended up together, it seems like they were doomed from the start. I’m sure
I’m not the only one who thinks that.”
Scott frowned. He had a point. He had thought that from the very beginning. Even now, he still
hoped for it. Except this time, he was only just starting to consider Tango’s feelings in the mix.
How absolutely devastated he would be. How much pain it would bring him to see Jimmy leave
after all that. Would he get angry over it too? Scott thought ‘yes’ to be the obvious answer. Though
for some reason, he just couldn’t picture that happening.
“But didn’t your relationship form in the exact same way?” Scott said, pushing those thoughts to
the side. “Didn’t you also have to face difficulties on your home server as well?”
Impulse eyed him warily. “Hold on… Just how much did he tell you?”
Scott remained silent as if wordlessly trying to argue “I asked you first”.
Impulse took the hint, sighing. “I did… often. And it hurt.” He shook his head. “But that’s still
different.”
Scott nearly laughed. “In what way was your experience—how you found your way to Bdubs—
any different?”
Impulse shrugged. “Simple, I chose to be with my friend. The man I’ve known for ages.”
“That’s not any different.”
“Of course it is.” He argued. “We’d been close friends for years before that point. But our exes?”
Impulse said, gesturing between them. “You might as well have put all the names of everyone in
our friend group together in a random-couple generator and hit shuffle.” He paused. “Oh, wait.
That’s exactly what happened.”
Scott should have been agreeing with him. How they ended up together was ridiculous. But seeing
them interact up close, knowing Tango as well as he did now—Scott just couldn’t agree that they
would ever end things just like that. And he still wasn’t feeling any more sympathy for this guy
then he did a few minutes ago, but he let him continue.
“A relationship built so messily on so few interactions with that much damage resulting from it—
it’s not gonna last. I thought you of all people would understand the sense in that.” Impulse laughed
softly, turning away slightly. “Tango was always a bit of a wild card. His choice after Double Life
seemed erratic. And even now, his reaction to our breakup still baffles me.”
Scott narrowed his eyes. “What reaction were you expecting?”
Impulse scoffed. “Literally anything other than ignoring me and acting like what we had never
happened.”
There was some silence after that. Scott couldn’t help but understand the other’s point of view. It
wasn’t an unreasonable request. Although if that were the case, he still could have just as easily
come to Tango himself.
Scott remembered how exhausted Tango looked when him and Jimmy had first found him after the
whole tower fiasco. How unnerved he was while retelling his experiences and how he admitted that
seeing Impulse only made him relive them all over again. Scott wanted to tell Impulse he was
wrong. That Tango wasn’t doing any of this out of spite or laziness.
“He doesn’t think of it that way.” Scott muttered. “He thinks about you all the time. So much that
it scares him.”
He saw Impulse look at him skeptically.
“Tell me, why didn’t you approach him first?”
Impulse sighed. “If I’d have made the first move then that would have proven nothing.” He tensed
up. “If he had approached me first, then that would have at least shown me that he still cared. But
instead, nothing happened. And now that he’s chosen now of all times to talk to me about being
friends again, I’m just scared that he’s only doing it out of a sense of obligation.”
Scott tried to rephrase his words. “That’s not how he sees it-“
“How would you know how he sees anything??” Impulse spoke, suddenly raising his voice. “And
while we’re back on that subject—how the heck do you know about what happened on
Hermitcraft? Did he tell you??”
Scott stood there, frozen, as if his body was locked into place and all he could do was stare. He
was unsure of what would do more damage, lying or telling the truth.
“Oh my god… he did.” Impulse breathed, running a hand through his hair. “That’s- that one’s on
me. I never bothered to ask him about that.” He brought it back down, groaning. “But still, I really
thought we were both on the same page there. I just figured it was natural that he would want as
few people to know about that disaster as possible…”
Scott swallowed, attempting to speak again. “You figured right.” He said quickly. “It wasn’t like
that with him. He didn’t just tell me because he trusted me all of a sudden. I walked in on him
talking to Etho about it and I wouldn’t stop asking him questions until he told me everything.”
Impulse’s eyes widened. And Scott immediately knew that he’d finally screwed up for good.
“-But I swear I won’t tell anyone else!” He said frantically. “I know now why you wouldn’t want
that and I-“
“Get out.” Impulse interrupted, voice stern.

For a second, Scott was scared he’d really pissed him off this time.
Then, the other’s gaze softened. He no longer looked mad, just defeated. “Please.” He urged again,
softer this time. “Just do this one thing for me and leave me alone so I can wait this stupid game
out. You can at least understand that much, right?”
Slowly, Scott shut his mouth. At that point, he’d felt as though he’d done more damage to Impulse
and Tango’s relationship than had already been done before coming in. Idiot.
“Fine.” He said, accepting defeat and walking back towards the elevators. He turned back around
one last time, sternly locking eyes with Impulse. “I still think you’re wrong. About all of us.”
“us.” He’d never used that word to defend the three them as a group before, but saying it now felt
right.
Impulse stared back. “I guess we’ll just see about that…”
Scott, not wanting to validate this guy with any more responses, wordlessly tucked himself into the
elevator that corresponded with the one he came up in, maintaining stern eye contact with Impulse
until he was lowered down past his floor.
It wasn’t very long until he was back at the bottom of the tower. This time, Scott felt the gust of air
coming from below him. He waited until it stopped, looking around the room only to catch Ren
standing in the corner, apparently still on this level. He seemed to be crafting something on a table.
Scott felt the air vent shut off just as Ren turned back around.
“Major!” He said, surprised. “How’d it go?”
“Terribly.” Scott said almost immediately. He felt sorry to be dumping his frustrations on to Ren,
but in the moment, he just wanted to get out of this place as quickly as possible.
Ren stared at him, confused. “Wha-?”
“Listen.” Scott continued. “I’m more than a little pissed at Impulse right now. Don’t ask him why
—it’s complicated—I just am, alright?”
Ren frowned. “Okay…?”
“I didn’t want to let him in on the enchantment deal, but I see no reason why that should mean I
exclude you as well.” Scott started walking away from the elevators and towards Ren, trying to
take his mind off of what had just happened. “If you’re up for it, of course.”
He saw Ren nod slowly; he still appeared to be somewhat focused on how his conversation with
Impulse might have gone, but Scott ignored that.
“I know you guys aren’t on great terms,” He stated awkwardly. “but if you can, could you maybe
talk it over with Martyn too? If either of you decide to follow up on the deal, you can meet me at
the lighthouse when the sun sets. I can take you straight to the table from there.” He paused. “Is- is
that okay with you?”
Ren seemed to snap away from his thoughts at that. “Huh?” He said suddenly. Oh! Yes—
definitely!” He laughed, smiling awkwardly. “Heh, you’re actually kind of doing me a favor, dude.
If anything, this gives me an excuse to go talk to him again.”
Scott’s heart sunk. Once again, he had to internally fight with himself to not say anything about
Martyn’s secret.
He bit his lip. “Just… Remember what we talked about, alright?”
He saw Ren’s smile quickly drop. “Oh…” He breathed sadly. “Right. Yeah, sure, I’ll… I’ll be sure
to keep that in mind.”
Scott offered him a soft smile, hopeful that he really was able to get through to Ren on some level.
“Thanks.” He said, now heading for the door. “I’ll see you guys soon, hopefully.”
“Yeah…” Was all he heard Ren say in response as he opened the door to leave.
Scott wasn’t sure if he wanted to leave him just yet, but he reassured himself that they would likely
be meeting again later that day anyway. Hopefully, he would have done something with his advice
by then.
Reluctantly, Scott closed the door behind him, stepping out of the tower and back on to the front
lawn.
The scenery hadn’t changed. There were still flowers and wheat all over the place—a big red
garden full of them too. They’d were still wilting, still dying out due to lack of care.
Scott was still feeling bitter over what Impulse had said. What made him think he knew anything
about him? He had his own reasons for sticking with Tango. To hell with anyone who tried to read
him like an open book, because he wasn’t one. He was a fucking person.
Slowly, Scott made his way over to one of the bulkier sections of the wheat farm, a dark thought
crossing his mind. Impulse had grown this. He was the one who was rearranging everything
outside when he, Jimmy, and Tango had first come here.
He was still angry. Some parts at Impulse, maybe some part over the red flowers everywhere
invading his thoughts and making him remember happier times.
He summoned a flint and steel.
This was immature. He really shouldn’t be doing this…
He bent down over one of the wheat stalks.
This was so, so petty. Doing something like this would only further justify Impulse’s shallow
expectations of him. But then again, this was still just a game, right? Arson was nothing new here.
And it’s not like he’d be hurting Ren or Martyn by doing this. He just wanted to irritate Impulse a
little. Just to show him not to mess with him.
Scott set a single stalk on fire—and walked away.
If the rest of the wheat just happened to catch fire from that single flame, well—then that was just
some unfortunate luck for Impulse.
Scott made his way down the mountain, fully intending to just go back home and wait the rest of
the day out untill he possibly had to meet up with Ren again.
Suddenly, he perked his head up, hearing the call of a horn go off in the distance.
He smiled.
Chapter End Notes
Lots of things happening here. I understand my dialogue writing can be choppy at

times, so if anyone has any questions or needs an explanation about what exactly was
going on please feel free to ask!
Forget Me Not
Chapter Summary
The alliance visit Pearl’s group to talk about the enchantment deal. Tango talks to
Pearl about Scott. He finds a present to give Scott in return for the horn.
Chapter Notes
I’m late again, ik. Sorry bout that. Hope this chapter ends up being worth the wait tho.
“So who do you thinks gonna win this thing?” Bdubs asked as he was in the middle of checking his
clock. “Cause my bets on Grian.”
“Pff- please.” Cleo laughed, speeding up to walk next to him. “You only chose him cause he’s the
safe option.”
Tango hummed in agreement. Grian was usually the safe option in these cases. He was the person
most responsible for arranging the games, so he’d always know in advance what the theme was
going to be. Not to mention he’d also won on one occasion before.
The blaze looked at Bdubs, who had a pouty look on his face.
“Well, am I wrong?” Cleo teased. She then turned to him.
“Tango, who did you bet on winning?”
Tango paused. Did he think the two of them would pull anything if they knew who he’d placed
money on? Probably not. But it was always riskier to have people know your bets before and
especially during the game since that was when the likeliness of a player winning could potentially
be altered.
With that in mind, Tango lied. “Lizzie.”
“Lies.” Cleo spoke bluntly.
Tango scoffed. “She’s a decent player!”
“I never said she wasn’t. I just said you were lying.”
“Well, I’m not.” The blaze argued, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Besides, if I end up winning,
whatever the prize this session is will be more than enough to cover what I lose. So there’s that
too.”
“You think you got a shot at winning then?” Cleo said, nudging his shoulder and smirking.
“I do.” Tango replied matter-of-factly. “And I think it’s possible if I have Scott helping me.”
Some silence hung in the air after that. Tango simply rolled his eyes. “Oh come on.” He said.
“You’ve seen him. He’s amazing. Really smart too.”
More silence.
Both Cleo and Bdubs had stopped walking completely. Tango stopped with them, turning around
and tilting his head. “What?”
Cleo inhaled deeply through her nose. “I seriously can’t be the only one holding it in, right?”
Bdubs immediately shook his head. “Nope.”
“Oh thank god.”
Tango quirked an eyebrow. “Holding what in?”

“Tango,” Bdubs started. “You have absolutely hated that guy since Double Life.”
Cleo nodded. “What changed?”
Tango tried to speak, at first, but nothing came out. A lot had changed. He knew that much. He’d
spent a lot of time with Scott, and at first it was unpleasant. Then, he found out he still loved
Jimmy and that had him feeling sick to his stomach with guilt. Then they started having fun,
actually enjoying each other’s company, or at least, Tango hoped that was the case for Scott.
He really hoped so.
“I don’t know…” Tango breathed, answering somewhat honestly this time. “I guess I just realized
how much I really screwed him over back then-“
“So it’s pity then?” Cleo chimed in. “That’s what’s making you act like this?”
“I-“
“No way.” Bdubs intruded. “He wouldn’t be dropping compliments about Scott while he’s not
even here if it were pity.”
“Oooh!” Cleo smiled. “So you like him then?”
“Well-“
Bdubs snorted. “Can’t say I ever saw that one coming-“
“ Guys.” Tango said firmly, his two allies pausing nervously and finally allowing him to speak. “I
really don’t want to explain myself right now.”
That was true. He really didn’t. Whether that be because he was unsure of his own feelings, or
because talking about his relationship with Scott in such a way around other people would be
awkward, he felt that he just wasn’t completely ready to voice any of that.
“It’s just complicated, alright?” The blaze finished, his eyes fixed on the ground.
Slowly, they all continued walking. “Understood, I guess.” Cleo nodded
“Yeah, okay…” Bdubs murmured.
It wasn’t too much longer until they arrived at where they needed to be.
Tango looked up as he saw the village come into sight. There had been some heavy modifications
made to the team’s base—and really, the area in general—since the last time he’d been here.
Multiple new trees and flowers had been grown in seemingly random areas throughout the village.
Above those trees, as well as the various houses, trailed a single line of rail track on cobblestone
that carried several mine carts on top of it.
“What the heck is going on here…” Bdubs muttered quietly, appearing mesmerized as he watched
the carts move all over the place.
Tango was also captivated by the structure, it didn’t appear to have any purpose. Some mine carts
even carried villagers in them, though most just seemed to be moving in random and wild
directions as they continued to crash into other mine carts and bounce off in opposite directions.
The three of them walked on, still observing all the commotion that was occurring until they
eventually reached the main base. Tango took note of all the extra flowers that had been placed
everywhere. It gave the whole place a bit of a spring-feeling, a happy feeling.
Cleo was knocking on the door as soon as they’d gone up there. Surprisingly quickly, Pearl was
there to poke her head through it and answer.
“Hey guys!” She smiled, stepping aside while gesturing them to come in.
“Hey Pearl.” Cleo responded, going in first. “Good to see you.” Tango and Bdubs stepped in after
her.
“You as well.” Tango watched Pearl make her way across the living room and into another area of
the house. He closed the door behind him and quickly went to follow.
“Glad you messaged me in advance. I was just getting lunch all set up, so it was good to know that
I should make some extra food.” They all watched her reach into one of the furnaces and pull out a
tray of baked potatoes, placing them by a window to cool.
“Oh!” Cleo jumped. “You really didn’t need to-“
“I insist!” Pearl said, moving to another furnace to check on what appeared to be enough baked
chicken to feed a village.
Tango cleared his throat. Admittedly, he was a little hungry. “Uh- speaking of ‘company’, are
Lizzie and Joel around? Cause we were hoping we could speak to all three of you guys-“
Tango stopped as soon as he heard the door behind them swing open once more. Surprisingly, loud
laughter could be heard.
Pearl grinned. “Looks like they just arrived.”
All of them turned around to see the couple close the door again, Joel was sporting a genuine-
looking smile while his partner continued laughing, holding on to him shakily with one of her arms
for balance while she used her other hand to take her shoes off.
They looked happy. Actually happy.
All Tango and his group could do was stare in bewilderment. The couple’s lighthearted attitude
towards each other was a surprise, but a good one.
It was Lizzie who first seemed realize that there were other people standing in her house. Tango
watched as she let go of Joel, brushing some of her messy hair over her shoulder as she made her
way over to them.
“Didn’t realize we were having company.” She said, still smiling. “If I had known that, I might
have held off on test-riding the rail track we made.
Tango looked over to Joel, then back at Lizzie. Both of their hair was sticking up strangely,
appearing to have been blow-dried profusely. In fact, their entire appearance, from their messy hair
to their wrinkly clothes made the couple look as though they’d been through a tornado.
Tango, unable to stop staring at the others’ odd appearances, jumped slightly when someone else
began to speak. “Yeah—what is that whole thing anyway?” He heard Bdubs ask.
Joel had walked over by now. He was trying to straighten out his over-shirt with zero success.
“Y’know, I honestly wish I could say.” He laughed. “I know we meant to design something that
would transport villagers to our trading hall, but I think somewhere along the line, we just started
adding to it for fun.”
Lizzie smiled, looking back out at the structure through one of the windows. “Now, I think it’s
either a roller coaster or a bumper-car ride.”
Joel rubbed his chin. “Maybe both, actually…”
As soon as the question was asked, they seemed to shrug it off, as if the point of the structure really
had surpassed them both completely. “But how have you all been?” Lizzie asked, changing the
topic. “Heard you guys raided Grian’s base the other night.”
“That we did.” Cleo nodded. “We actually wanted to talk with you about that. Not sure if you
knew, but the enchanting table went missing for a short while and it turns out Grian’s team stole
it.”
Joel seemed to roll his eyes at that. “Ugh. I’m not surprised.”
“But we were able to get it back during the raid!” Bdubs budded in optimistically.
“Oooh!” Pearl said, intrigued. “You’re keeping it at the lighthouse then, eh?”
“That’s a secret.” He finished.
“But that’s why we’re here.” Cleo went on. “We’re looking for people to sell table privileges to for
say… ten diamonds each?”
There was a pause as they all looked around the room for reactions. No one seemed particularly
excited about that deal, and something told Tango that it had nothing to do with the actual price.
“ Hmmm… ” Pearl hummed. “Our team is already fairly set on enchantments thanks to the
librarians we’ve acquired from the village just yesterday.”
Tango slumped his shoulders. he’d completely forgotten about that.
“But—“ Pearl went on. “I have been looking to enchant a few of my spare weapons without having
to use up so much xp. But I don’t want to use up diamonds either…” She paused again, lost in
thought for a moment before snapping her fingers. How about this,” She said, looking to Tango.
“The last time you came to me with a deal, I offered you access to my mob farm.” She then looked
to Joel and Lizzie, the two of them nodding slightly. They all seemed to be on the same page with
whatever they were thinking. “If you let all of us in on this deal, then we’ll give you the same
exchange. Unlimited access to the farm and its resources.” She looked back at the three of them.
“How’s that sound?”
Cleo seemed to be thinking it over. She then tugged at Tango’s sleeve, pulling both him and Bdubs
to the side. “Give us a sec, please?”
Another Hermit huddle, he supposed.
“Tango, she’s shown you the farm, right?” Cleo asked, whispering.
“No.” Tango replied, shaking his head. “They’re doing the same thing we’re doing with the
enchanting table. They don’t want to reveal where it’s located.” Quickly, he recalled what Pearl
had shown them last time, that being the large chest filled to the brim with mob droppings. “Pearl
did shown me and Scott their haul last time though.” Tango continued.
“Is it good?”
He nodded. “It’s pretty good, yeah. Drops arrows and gunpowder. Seems really efficient to me.”
They both looked at Bdubs.
“I’d be in on it.” He said nonchalantly. “Guys?”
Cleo smiled. “Sure.” She was about to lift her head back up before hesitating momentarily. “Hey,
since you apparently know Scott so well, do you think he’d be alright with us going through with
this deal instead of bargaining with diamonds like we planned?”
Tango flinched slightly, surprised that she was consulting him of all people on this. Come to think
of it, Cleo definitely knew Scott better than he did. But then again, he was his teammate for this
game. At least this time around he was.
“Yes.” The blaze said, recalling how Scott had wanted to take up Pearl’s deal last time.
“Alright then.” Cleo said, finally turning back around to face the other team. “We’re in.”
Pearl laughed as her and Cleo swung both their arms up to jokingly and dramatically shake each
other’s hand. “Pleasure doing business with you.”
“So,” Lizzie said, speaking up. “When do we get to see where you’re keeping the table?”
“It’s up to you.” “Cleo responded. “Though sometime during the day would probably be
preferable.”
Lizzie crossed her arms, appearing to be thinking. “Well, I know I’d be good to go today.” She
looked at her husband, raising an eyebrow. “But Joel, didn’t you say you wanted to take me
somewhere before the day ended?”
Joel seemed confused for a second, before recognition struck his face. “Oh!” He said. “Yes I did.
But that’s okay.” He made a waving gesture with his hand. Weirdly enough, his expression seemed
to have changed from happy to nervous within less than a second. “I can just take you there
tomorrow, or another time even, since I’m sure this’ll take up a pretty good chunk of the day-“
“No, not really.” Pearl interjected, voice unassuming. “It’s fine. I think it’d be better if we all went
as a group anyway. We could just go tomorrow, and besides, it’d be more convenient for the both
of our groups if we all went at the same time, yeah?”
“Um- okay…” Joel agreed somewhat hesitantly. “Tomorrow it is then.”
Now, Joel looked it be wearing a nervous smile, as if he were trying to mask some uncomfortable
underlying feelings. Tango felt worried for him. Clearly there was something going on there that
he had no idea about, but was it his place to ask? Probably not. At least, not right now…”
“You’ll still be staying for lunch though, right?” Pearl asked suddenly, looking at all of them
expectantly.
Cleo opened her mouth. “Uh-“
“You know what? This is an ambush, actually.” Pearl joked, going back to opening the second
oven as she spoke. “None of you are leaving till you try my baked potatoes…”
__
In all sincerity, the food was good. They’d all taken a seat at a large table that Lizzie had quickly
built to accommodate the extra people sitting down. After that, everyone just sat around it and
relaxed as Pearl brought the food out. Tango had forgotten how nice it was to just hang around
with his friends. More specifically, friends who he didn’t have to fear were still secretly judging
him. Friends who have been on his side since before Double Life and even after, despite how much
he might not have actually deserved their support.
He was certainly reminded now more than ever that all the support he ever got was at the expense
of someone else…
He wondered how Scott was doing right now. If everything was going okay for him. Looking back
on it, Tango wished he’d been there. He should have been there for Scott. If not to leave him alone
and vow never to come near Jimmy again, then at least to help him in any other way that he could
have. At least to acknowledge that his actions were the source of his pain. But who was he
kidding? He would have obviously been the last person Scott would have wanted to talk to during
all that. If anything, he probably would have just pushed him away. God knows he wouldn’t have
blamed him for it.
But that didn’t explain why Scott wasn’t pushing him away now. Or why he wanted to be there for
him now. Literally right now—
“Everything alright, Tango?” He heard Pearl ask suddenly as he quickly moved his head up to look
back at her.
“Huh?”
“You’ve been staring at your food for like, a solid minute.” She said, smiling awkwardly.
Tango swallowed, wanting to slap himself for not paying attention. “Sorry.” He replied. “I didn’t
sleep much last night. I’m- I’m a little out of it.”
No one seemed to question him with that answer. In fact, he heard Cleo let out a laugh. “Definitely
know where you’re coming from.” She commented before continuing to poke at her food.
A few more topics of conversation went by, none of them of any interest to the blaze. That is, until
he heard something that made him nearly choke on his food.
“Any reason why Scott’s not in your group right now?” Joel asked casually.
Tango’s over-reaction to hearing his teammate’s name get mentioned was more than enough to get
all eyes in the room on him.
“Shoot-!” Tango sputtered, coughing up a lung. Why was he suddenly like this? Why did he feel
the need to immediately direct all his attention to whoever was talking whenever Scott was the
topic of conversation? It was weird, to say the least. Probably creepy too, to some extent…
“Tango, you sure you’re alright there?” Cleo asked, her previous smile now a look of concern.
“M’fine.” Tango said, finally getting his breathing under control. Not wanting to make a spectacle
of himself any longer, he quickly moved to slide his chair out, standing up and working his way
around the table.
“I need some air.”
Immediately, he walked around the corner and out the front door before anyone got the chance to
ask him more questions.
He took a breather, closing the door behind him and stepping around edge of the house and off to
the side, somewhere decently far away from all the noise that was being made by the clanging of
mine carts. He needed to get his thoughts straight, because jolting in surprise every time someone
so much as mentioned Scott was not only weird, but also potentially concerning from an outside
perspective.
Thoughtlessly, the blaze went to sit down on a spot of grass, summoning his horn in his hands.
He’d been carrying it around since he’d first got it. He stared at it curiously. And just like that, his
thoughts were on Scott again.
A lot of things were going through his head right now. Like how maybe he shouldn’t have stared at
Scott for as long as he did this morning while he was sleeping, or while he was stretching, or while
they were making food—
Yeah. He really needed to get a grip on all these new thoughts he was having about Scott.
Whatever they were, exactly…
It wasn’t pity. He knew that much, at least. Maybe it was, in the very beginning, but now it was
just getting out of hand. He couldn’t focus, couldn’t do anything other than think of when he’d get
back to the cabin and be able to hang around his teammate again. It was ridiculous. And the one
thing that was concerning him more than any of his other thoughts wasn’t his worry for what might
be going on with Scott while he was all alone, nor was it even how much he seemed to miss him at
the moment.
It was what he’d thought of him this morning. What he’d kept thinking of him throughout this
entire day.
Beautiful…
“Room for two over there?”
For the second time in the past five minutes, Tango nearly jumped out of his skin.
He turned around to see an apologetic-looking Lizzie holding a hand over her mouth.
“Sorry,” She squeaked. “I didn’t mean to scare you.” She took a cautious step forward, moving to
sit down next to him. “Though you looked plenty distressed already back there.” She teased.
“Might I ask what’s on your mind?”
Tango paused for a moment. Then, he breathed out a sigh.
“I should have gone with him.” He muttered, more to himself than to Lizzie, who appeared to have
tilted her head in confusion.
“Scott.” Tango said, confirming who he had meant. “He offered to go talk to Impulse’s team about
the whole table deal and I didn’t wanna go cause I-“
The blaze stopped himself, burying his head in his hands.
“Ah.” Lizzie said quietly. Already seeming to know at least some of part of what he meant.
The silence between them seemed to stretch on for a while before she attempted to break it once
more.
“Something tells me that’s not all you’re worried about.”
She would be right.

“Is anything bad going on with you and Scott?” She sucked in a breath. “Other than- erm- the
usual?”
Tango’s expression didn’t change. He just found all this to be so weird to him. “That’s the thing.”
He replied. “I don’t think ‘the usual’ even applies to us anymore.”
Lizzie blinked. “What…?”
“Or maybe that’s just the optimistic part of my brain filtering things out and he still just doesn’t
like me.” Tango continued. “But either way, I just can’t stop thinking about him.”
Lizzie hummed curiously. “Well, he did give you a horn. I’d say that’s grounds enough to be
obsessing over him.”
That drew a small laugh out of him.
“And also, maybe, some pretty solid proof that he doesn’t dislike you?”
Tango shrugged. “But I still ruined his life.” He turned to the other, her reaction unchanging. “See?
Even you’re not denying it!”
“Tango…” She sighed “It’s not that simple. You know it isn’t.”
It seemed pretty damn simple to him. He and Scott had barely know each other at one point, and
then the moment he inserted himself into his life in any way, everything just went downhill for
him.
But it would be wrong to drop all that on his friend at this moment.
“I’m sorry.” He muttered, unraveling his arms and turning to give her a warm smile. “ Heh, look at
me go, making this all about me. How are things with Joel? They seem better.”
He saw Lizzie swallow nervously.
“They are.” She spoke. “He stopped avoiding me at least. Which did surprise me, after all this
time. We’ve been spending more time together, having fun. Things almost feel like they’re back to
normal.” She smiled softly. “And it’s been good. It really has been… But—I still feel like- like he’s
not entirely there, you know?”
Tango thought back on every instance Jimmy had ever shown signs of missing Scott. Every
moment when his true feelings should have been completely obvious to him but weren’t.
“Yeah.” He said, curling into himself. “I know…”
And he did. He really did.
“You still haven’t asked him about it yet, have you?”
Lizzie shook her head, not needing to ask him what he was referring to at this point. “I’m trying.”
She said.
“I know.” Tango replied. “Well, at least you still have one life left till I have to come after you.”
That seemed to lighten the mood a little. He heard the other let out a laugh.
“Still can’t do that unless you’re red too.” She replied.
“Well then, we’ll just have to wait and see how things play out.”
Lizzie smirked. “That we will…”
They both left the subject at that.

“So.” She spoke again. “You wanna show off that new horn you’ve been staring at?”
Grinning eagerly, Tango brought the horn up to his lips and blew.
“Just messaged Scott. Cleo voiced to the group as she was walking about. they were all helping to
clean up at this point. “Looks like he’s on board and will be taking whoever decides to show up on
Martyn’s team to the table tonight.”
Tango saw Bdubs nod. “Sounds good.”
He’d also been about to reply before the other zeroed in on him, swiftly pulling him to the side to
talk in his ear.
“Hey.” She whispered to him gently. “I’ll be at the lighthouse during that time anyway. So if you
just want to sit this one out in case Impulse shows up, I totally get it.”
Tango froze, feeling anxious just at the question. “I’ll think about it.” He whispered back. “Thank
you.”
No one really had anything better to do that day other than Joel and Lizzie who, of course, were
quick to go off on their own again doing who knows what. Tango was honestly relieved that they
were speaking to each other again, though he was still a bit worried as to why that might be, given
how out of the blue the change was. But other than that, the only thing on Tango’s mind was, once
again, Scott.
Cleo and Bdubs seemed fairly adamant on remaining with Pearl for the remainder of the afternoon,
messing with the weird roller coaster construction that was built, playing cards, and eventually
finding themselves all lounging around in Pearl’s bedroom doing pretty much anything else to eat
up time. Not that that was a bad thing, of course. No one really had anything better to do, and
besides, Grian’s team might still be looking to take revenge on them somehow, and there was
safety in numbers.
Meanwhile, however, Tango was looking for any opportunity he could get to speak to Pearl alone
so that he could finally leave. It wasn’t that he wasn’t enjoying himself. He just didn’t want to
leave Scott alone for this long. Because, well… safety in numbers?
“Think I’m gonna head back soon.” The blaze said, finally giving in.
Pearl shot her head up at that. She had been resting it on Cleo’s lap in that instance as the other
braided bits of her hair. “Aw, already?”
Tango shrugged. “Sorry.” He said. “Just don’t think it’d be a great idea to leave Scott alone for this
long.”
“Pft- yeah.” Bdubs joked. “Don’t want him walking off another ravine again, amirite?”
“ Heh, yeah…”
“Come on.” Pearl said, now fully pulling herself off of Cleo, much to the other’s visible
disappointment. “I’ll walk you out.”
Tango sat there, surprised.
Well, that was way easier than he expected.
He got up, and after a few quick goodbyes to Cleo and Bdubs, the two left the bedroom and made
their way downstairs. Strangely, Pearl didn’t head straight for the door, but rather towards a large
chest that was placed across the room from it. Tango eyed the other curiously, watching as she
pulled out a variety of items before, turning to face him, arms completely full.
“This is for you and Scott.” She said, shoving everything into his arms before he could even
register what was going on.
“Hey-!” Tango started, but then proceeded to actually look at what was being given to him. Some
of it was wood and stone, but most of it was food. Good food.
Tango froze. “We don’t need all that, it’s fine.”

“I know…” Pearl said shyly. “I just figured you could use all the help you could get, since, well—
since you lost a teammate this early on.”
Tango’s heart sunk.
There it was.
“That wasn’t your fault, Pearl.” He urged, trying to convince her, but the other didn’t seem to
budge on the matter.
“…I’m the one who told you to go after Grian’s team.” She replied softly.
Tango shook his head. “We probably would have just done that anyway.” He rephrased. Then, a
sudden thought hit him. “Please tell me you didn’t just offer up the mob farm deal again because of
this…”
Pearl smiled awkwardly. “Well, I did want more enchantments. That much was true.”
Tango frowned.
“But- I don’t know…” She spoke, voice now having a concerning shake to it. “It just seems like I
keep finding new ways to screw up your life.”
Tango’s eyes widened. Only just now was he connecting the dots with this. It seemed as though
Jimmy’s death wasn’t the only thing she blamed herself for. Was this how she really felt? This
entire time??
“Pearl…”
This wasn’t okay. He needed to say something. Something that would convince her that she hadn’t
screwed up at all.
Tango thought back to the first few days after the game. A time when things were more confusing
and chaotic then they’d ever been.
“I’m glad you told Lizzie about the Hermitcraft drama.” The blaze said suddenly. Pearl looked up
at him, a mix of concern and confusion on her face. Now this, this was something he could be
honest with her about. What Pearl did after Double Life, whether she’d meant to do it or not, had
ended up gaining him a new friend in the long run.
Scott may have left right away, but everyone else who stuck around long enough during the after
party was at least somewhat aware of who ended up cheating on who—him and Impulse included.
But Scott ended up being the one and only exception among the Double Life players who wasn’t
completely aware of his and Impulse’s previous relationship. Lizzie, on the other hand, was
possibly the only exception among the people on Empires who knew everything that had been
happening on Hermitcraft after Pearl had told her a few days into it. Then, one thing led to another.
Tango found out about it, he had a talk with Lizzie, who promised not to spread the drama over her
own server so as to not have an unlikely—but still possible—repeat of what happened on
Hermitcraft happen on Empires with Jimmy, and as Tango continued to visit Jimmy on the server
and check in with her and Pearl, they all grew closer as a result.
And now, well, it was just as he’d said. In the end, he was glad Pearl had told Lizzie.
“I didn’t mean to.” Pearl replied. “I promise. She just wanted to know what had been bothering me
lately and by the time you asked me not to say anything about all the drama I had already-“
“I know.” Tango spoke gently. Though that didn’t seem to make Pearl any less regretful.
“I should have asked you first.” she said. “You were dealing with a lot and I shouldn’t have
assumed anything.”
Tango frowned. “Maybe.” He hummed. “But I’m telling you now, I’m glad that you did.”
Pearl looked back up. Tango met her gaze with intent.
“And you’re not ‘screwing up’ my life, okay? That was all me.”
Tango saw something change in her eyes. He really hoped at least some of what he was saying was
getting through to her.
“Scott wanted you to know that too.” He continued. “I know we’ve kind of been hating each other
this entire time and I know that’s been hard on you especially since you know us both. But I need
you to know—we need you to know—that all this time, throughout everything, you’ve been
nothing but an amazing friend.”
He stepped forward, putting heavy emphasis on his next words.
“To both of us.”
At first, Pearl said nothing, and Tango was worried that he’d somehow made things worse.
But then, she brushed a piece of hair away from her face, revealing a relieved, thankful smile.
“That- that’s really good to know…” She spoke calmly, tucking her arms into herself.
Tango felt relieved as well, but at the same time, terrified. It seemed as though every day he
learned of a new person who was hurt by the last game. It was deeply upsetting, not to mention
stressful.
He wondered if any more of his friends were suffering that he had no idea about.
Awkwardly, Tango continued standing there with his arms full, decidedly going back to square one
and insisting that Pearl keep what she’d offered him.
“Here-“ He said, leaning in to hand everything back.
Pearl shook her head, pushing him back. “No, really.” She insisted. “Take it. We have way too
much food here anyway.”
Well, given that they lived in a village, he could certainly believe it. So long as his friend wasn’t
simply doing this out of obligation, he figured he could let it slide.
“Thank you…” Tango replied after a second, finally giving in and vanishing the items into his
inventory. He’d have to tell Scott that all this came from Pearl’s team. He figured his teammate
would certainly be as grateful to have some variety in their meals now, as was he.
“Huh…” Tango said, suddenly remembering something he’d said to Scott earlier.
“What?” Pearl asked curiously.
Tango looked at her. “…Hey, you don’t happen to know what Scott might like as a gift, would
you?”
Pearl seemed surprised at the question, but not put off. “Well,” She started. “I can think of a few
things, why?”
“I just wanted to get him something back, for the horn, you know.”
“Oh yeah,” Pearl gasped. “That really was a nice gesture that he did.”
Tango was certainly one to agree.
“Hmmm…” Pearl looked downward, thinking on it for a moment. “I got it.” She quickly spoke
again. “You can not go wrong with flowers when it comes to Scott.”
Tango looked at her, surprised. “Really?”
The other quirked her head at that.
“Sorry.” He went on. “I just thought that maybe he had something against them.”
“Why would you think that?”

Tango made an awkward face, remembering how the first few days of the game had gone for
them. “He burnt down a base we all built together on day one cause it looked kind of like the one
him and Jimmy had back on Third Life. And the main similarity between them seemed to be the
flowers, so I figured…” He groaned. “I don’t know what I figured. All I know is that the next base
he build didn’t have any.”
Pearl seemed to be thinking again. “I’m sure that had nothing to do with the flowers themselves.”
She insisted. “I see him take care of his own all the time. I mean, have you seen his empire?”
“From a distance.” Tango replied honestly. “But yeah, I can see what you’re getting at.”
Maybe Pearl was right. She was pretty close with Scott, after all. And now that he was really
thinking about it, perhaps it really was simply the memory that was connected to the flowers that
Scott disliked so much, and not the actual flowers themselves.
“How about this.” Pearl continued. “Me, Lizzie, and Joel really just decorated this area with all
these flowers just because we didn’t have anything else to do with all the extra bones we were
getting from the mob farm. So, if you want, how about you just grab one of each and make a
bouquet out of them?”
Tango blinked. “ Really? ”
“Sure.” Pearl smiled. “I think Scott would love that.”
She must have seen the still-hesitant look on his face after that. But she simply responded to it
calmly, like usual. “And hey, even if he doesn’t like it, you could always just fall back on the idea
and say that they came from me instead.” Pearl grinned smugly. “Scott can never actually get mad
at me. No matter how hard I know he tries to sometimes, heh.”
“Well—alright then! I guess…” Tango smiled back, looking out one of the windows at the field of
bushes and flowers surrounding the village. “Where should we start?”
It wasn’t too long before they had finished collecting at least one of every flower and Tango had
said his goodbyes once more. Knowing what they’d talked about earlier, he was well aware that
there was still a lot that needed to be said between them, but at least for now, they’d gotten the
important parts out of the way.
Now having a full inventory thanks to all the flowers and food, Tango made his way back to the
cabin. He knew Scott would be back there like he’d said, and it was nice to know that he’d have
some good news to bring back with him as well. Not only did they now have a much wider variety
of food than they did before, but more importantly, he was able to connect with Pearl, and for the
most part, she seemed like she was going to be okay.
They both did.
He was in a good mood, surprisingly. Much better than he had been for a while. He still missed
Jimmy, of course, but Tango at least knew he would see him again eventually. Right now, he was
just glad to have talked to Pearl, and hung out with his friends.
Yeah, things were definitely going alright for all of them.
Breaking through the trees and into the clearing, Tango was able to see the cabin clearly. He
walked up to it, opening the front door. The first thing he noticed was that Scott wasn’t in the main
area where the chests and furnaces were. Not thinking much of it, he turned the corner, then,
quickly came face to face with the other, who seemed to have been looking for whoever just came
in.
They stared at each other momentarily.
“Glad you didn’t die yet.” Scott said, cracking a grin.
Tango smirked. “Nice to see you too.” He said, rolling his eyes. He then quickly noticed how
messy Scott’s hair was, how his eyes were droopy and tired-looking.
“Were you—were you sleeping?” He asked, worried that he might have woken the other up.
“Oh—no, I wasn’t.” Scott replied. “Well—I was trying to, but I never did, so you didn’t wake me
up, if thats what you’re worried about.”
Tango felt relieved, laughing lightly at the statement. “Wouldn’t be the first time.” He said,
recalling how he’d nearly swung an axe into the other’s face last time he’d woken him up from an
attempted nap.
“Heh, yeah.” Scott smiled back. “Wouldn’t be the first time…”
Spending time with Scott wasn’t as fleeting as it ought to have been. Tango managed to sort away
all the food that Pearl had given them, much to Scott’s excitement. The two then went straight to
cooking most of the raw items that were left over so as to have it pre-made for later. During that
time was when Scott decided to bring up the agreement he’d made with Ren to potentially meet
with him and possibly Martyn by the lighthouse later that night.
“Yeah, Cleo let me know about that.” The blaze said, grabbing a tray from one of the furnaces with
his bare hands and placing it on top of the stove section. He noticed Scott flinch for a second
before shaking his head and going back to storing some of the bread away. The first time he’d seen
him do that, he’d freaked out and instinctively shot ice at his hands, temporarily freezing them to
the stovetop. Tango was able to get in a good laugh at the other as he thawed himself out. “Guess
that means we’re taking Ren’s team to the table tonight, moving it to a new area, then bringing
Pearl’s team to it tomorrow.”
“Mhm.” Scott didn’t seem too bothered by that idea. Although he hadn’t spoken much in general
since he’d gotten back to the base.
And there was one thing on his mind that he just couldn’t let go of.
“Did Impulse say anything about showing up, by the way?” The blaze asked hesitantly.
He saw Scott freeze in place momentarily, before going right back to what he was doing as if
nothing odd had been said.
“Uh- you know? He was kind of vague with his answer.” The other replied, seeming to keep his
eyes focused on anything other than Tango as he spoke. “He pretty much just said he’d think about
it, same with Ren and Martyn.”
“Oh.” Tango said, voice dropping. “That doesn’t seem like something he’d say…”
Scott stopped moving again, this time, actually looking at him as he spoke. “What do you mean by
that?”
“Hm?” Tango hummed. “Oh, nothing much, I guess. He’s just usually pretty direct with his
answers, is all.” And it was true. Most of the people in their group were and it did seem strange for
Impulse to have given Scott a “maybe” rather than a “yes” or a “no”. Knowing Impulse, if
anything, it would have made more sense for him to have fist asked if he was going to be there,
seeing as he was supposedly still avoiding him.
“You don’t think his response had anything to do with me, do you?” Tango asked, now suddenly
anxious as to why his ex might have responded that way. “Like- I don’t know, maybe he just
doesn’t want to show up cause he’s afraid I’ll be there too?”
He noticed Scott looking at him worriedly in that instance—unnaturally so. He now had his gaze
fixed on him as if he were two seconds from blowing up. It only made Tango more concerned. “…
Cause- cause clearly he still hates me—“
“Tango.” Scotts said calmly. The blaze watched him walk over, ignoring everything else that he’d
been doing before. “He didn’t seem to be thinking that way at all.”
“…Really?” He was surprised. Both at Impulse’s supposed reaction and by how Scott seemed to
be… comforting him? As if he felt obligated to. As if he wouldn’t be able to focus on anything else
until he knew that he was going to be alright.
Tango wasn’t sure how exactly he felt about that. But it certainly didn’t feel wrong. Just different.
“No.” Scott continued, shaking his head. “Maybe he just has his own things going on right now,
but I’m sure that if he did choose to turn down the deal, whatever his reason might be, it probably
had nothing to do with you.”
Tango swallowed down a small lump in his throat, nodding. “I hope so…” Then, he smiled.
“Thank you for doing all that, by the way.”
Scott once again seemed to jolt at what he’d said, but Tango continued none the less. “It means a
lot to me.” He finished. But by then, Scott’s calm gaze had faded into a look of complete
anxiousness.
The blaze was more than a little confused now. What was he so worried about? Was Scott worried
on his behalf? He was still concerned about how Impulse had stoped talking to him, sure, but that
had always been a concern of his. Why was Scott only comforting him about that now?
And why did he seem so worried about it?
“Scott?” Tango said, leaning in to the other ever so slightly. “Are you okay?”
Quickly, the other jolted again, ceasing his previous advances and turning his head away. “I’m
fine.” He replied. “Just tired, as always.”
Tango wasn’t so sure he believed that. He had, of course, gave the same excuse to Pearl when
she’d asked what was bothering him earlier. But what else could he do but ask?
Things were quiet now. Out of the corner of his eye, Tango caught a look outside the window. The
sun was just beginning to set, the cover of dusk painting the room a beautiful orange color. Scott
appeared to have noticed it too, his face no longer seeming strained as he gazed out the window at
the sunset.
“Hey,” Tango spoke, catching the other’s attention once more. “So, I actually picked up something
else from Pearl’s that I thought you might like.”
Scott’s gaze came back, remaining focused on him. His eyes showed a hint of genuine interest. He
maintained his focus on him rather than on the sunset, as if he were somehow more important.
More intriguing than what was going on outside.
Tango waited a second, wondering if he should really follow through with this. Oh well… the
worst reaction Scott could give him would probably just be to burn the flowers like he did the
starter base, right?
Tango breathed in deeply, summoning the bouquet Pearl had helped him make.
“These are for you.” He spoke calmly, carefully holding out the flowers for him to grab. “They’re
from that big flowery area by her base. I grabbed one of each—figured that since there’s some
flowers you seem to like and some that you don’t, maybe you could just pick out the ones that you
want yourself?”
Scott stayed silent. His eyes had widened and he remained still, staring at the flowers as if they
were poisonous.
He didn’t touch a single one of them.
Tango pulled them back slightly, beginning to panic.
“—And—I mean— I know you don’t want any flowers from me— I- I know—that-“
He was blushing now, his voice picking up in speed. God, what was he doing? Was Pearl wrong?
Had this been a bad idea??
“—but, they’re honestly more from Pearl anyway- so-“
He tried to fall back on what she’d suggested to him. Tried to say they came from her instead.
But Scott clearly heard none of it
“No…” The other whispered, still staring at the flowers. Entranced by them, but not in a good way.
It was as if he were seeing something different. As if his mind was somewhere else entirely in that
moment.
“Scott-?” Tango spoke, now giving up completely as he vanished the flowers once more.
“You shouldn’t be—we shouldn’t-“ His breathing had picked up and the blaze could only watch
him in both confusion and fear. “—Was it Jimmy who told you about this?”
“Scott—I don’t understand-“
“Is this your way of trying to mess with me again??” Scott’s voice had picked up greatly. He
sounded so upset. So in pain. “—Like you did with the first base?—Have you just been trying to
make me relive everything this whole time??”
Oh boy… He’d fucked up. He wasn’t entirely sure how, but he fucked up big time.
“No-!” Tango yelled, trying to come off as sincere, but really, this only seemed to make the other
panic more.
Scott started taking steps back. Tango didn’t dare try to follow him. All he really knew to do in this
situation was to not interfere—maybe??
“Fuck- I- j- just hang on a sec-!” Tango tried to speak, but his words were failing him.
“No- I- damn it, Tango! I-!’ Scott yelled, eyes now welling up with tears. Just for a moment, his
breathing slowed down a little. He was halfway across the room at this point, breath hitching on
each of his next words.
“—I- I was starting to like you…” He spoke, his voice eerily quiet now.
Tango felt something painful swell in his chest. It might have been his heart breaking. Who’s to
say? How could he know anything at this point? How could he know anything when he couldn’t
even get this right?
“—And I was stupid enough to think you liked me too…”
That did it.
The blaze felt his own tears build up behind his eyes, so filled with confusion and fear and sorrow.
He wasn’t thinking straight anymore. Neither of them seemed to be. Slowly, he started moving,
deciding that just standing by wasn’t fixing anything. But Scott began to move back again, this
time, faster than Tango could keep up with.
“Scott-!”
The word’s died in his mouth as Scott made it to the door, throwing it open and slamming it all in
the same instance. Before the blaze could even figure out what had happened, he was gone.
Tango stood there, alone in their now quiet base. Of course, he wondered why Scott had freaked
out like that. But now, he found his mind wandering to other places as well. Where was Scott
going? What was he going to do? Was he just headed for the ravine again? Just like last time?
Tango tried to move. He wanted to chase after him. Try to get some kind of answer out of Scott
before it was too late.
But instead, he just stayed still. Maybe because he was afraid of making things worse. Maybe
because he just didn’t care. It didn’t matter. Chasing him now wouldn’t do either of them any
good.
So, Tango just waited. For Scott to come back, for him to suddenly die because Scott finally
decided to leave this game once and for all—who even knew? It didn’t matter. Whatever Scott
wanted to do, he could do it.
He’d just let him go…
Chapter End Notes
That moment when you realize the chamomile tea in chap28 wasn’t just symbolism
but also foreshadowing…
(Looks like Tango’s proposal just got rejected)

We’re All Idiots
Chapter Summary
Scott tries to calm himself down after his outburst at Tango. He goes to the nether with
Ren and Martyn as per their agreement. The truth is finally revealed.
Chapter Notes
1000 kudos. In what world?? Every time I look online I just wonder how…? Y’all are
too amazing, really. Thank you!
Scott didn’t have a single clue where he was running off to, but he didn’t care. As long as it got
him far enough away from Tango and those stupid flowers and the fucking red poppies he was
holding—what the hell…
He wanted none of this. Asked for none of this! It was all too similar—too familiar. He had to have
been doing this on purpose. Jimmy must have told him something about it at one point. Right??
First the base, then he’d gotten closer to him, then the stupid tea, then this… It was as if he were
constantly trying to rub it in his face exactly what it was he lost. Remind him as much as possible
that there wasn’t a chance in hell that he’d ever get Jimmy back. Tango had hated him from the
start, hadn’t he? And now that Jimmy was gone, now that it was just the two of them, that gave
him every opportunity to screw with him however he wanted to without anyone else noticing.
Tango had to have been fucking with him. No wonder he’d been so nice lately. He was just some
dumb toy for him to play with. It made too much sense. Of course it did.
Gradually, Scott slowed his pace to a jog, then a walk.
No.
No, actually. None of that made any sense at all.
He could assume that everything Tango had done up until this point was just to put him through as
much emotional pain as possible. He could argue that Tango was a terrible person, just as he had
first assumed of him, and that he’d just been manipulating him this whole time.
But even if he were to take all that into consideration. Even if he were to reach that far…
“You don’t deserve this.”
Tango had said that to him so sincerely. Fully confident that he was asleep.
Scott stopped walking completely.
You idiot.
If anything, coming to his senses should have made him stop crying. But it didn’t. Frustratingly, he
kept trying to wipe the tears away, but they just kept coming. It was a misunderstanding. He knew
that much. So why couldn’t he just calm down? Were these tears just for Tango now? For hurting
him?? They couldn’t be. Because if that were true, it would mean that he didn’t just like him, he
didn’t just enjoy his company, it would mean that he actually cared about him.
“I was actually starting to like you…”
Oh god. Had he really said that out loud?
Scott felt his cheeks start to burn. Great. As if he wasn’t feeling enough emotions already, now he
could add fucking embarrassment to the list.
Shit. He needed to go back and explain himself. Explain everything.
Explain… what? Why he ran off? What the heck Tango even did wrong by trying to offer him
some flowers? Cause it wasn’t the flowers that he hated! At least not most of them! It was the
gesture and the fact that he seemed so sincere about it and how he went about presenting them and
the stupid bright red poppies scattered about in the mix. It was all too much. All too similar. And
what to even say to that? He wasn’t even ready to tell Tango the pet name he had for Jimmy last
night, let alone the entirety of how their previous relationship came to be!
Scott continued standing there, contemplating on what he should do as the tears continued to flow.
He couldn’t go back. He just… couldn’t. But he couldn’t just leave Tango there to worry about
him.
‘Worry.’ Was that what that was? The last look on Tango’s face he saw before he ran out the door?
Cause it sure wasn’t anger, or even anything close to it. Maybe a few days ago it would have been.
But then again, a few days ago, Tango wouldn’t have been giving him flowers at all. And it was a
nice gesture. God, it was so nice. He made sure to pick out at least one of each, arranged them
beautifully, had he even asked for Pearl’s advice on what to give him while he was visiting her?
Fucking hell. Pearl couldn’t know about this either then, could she?
Scott let out a sob.
“You idiot…” He whispered to himself as he wrapped his arms around his torso. Is this all he’d
ever be good for? Just running away from the people he cared about?
He looked to the horizon. The sun was still in the midsts of setting. An hour or so more and he’d
have to be meeting Ren at the lighthouse like he said he would. But was that really so important
right now?
Scott turned to look back in the direction that he ran from. He hadn’t gone that far from the cabin.
Just ran in a straight line towards the south end of the world border. If Tango had decided to chase
after him, he would have probably caught up with him by now even if he were only following at a
jogger’s pace.
If he had decided to chase after him. But clearly he hadn’t. And of course, Scott couldn’t blame
him for that. It was just… somewhat of a surprise to him. Tango had ran after him before when
he’d been about to jump down a ravine. How was this any different? Was he mad now? Did he
think it just wasn’t worth the effort the second time??
Scott pulled out his comm. No new messages. Nothing from Tango that he might of missed asking
him to come back. Just a quiet chat log.
Scott took a deep breath in. He looked at the sunset again, then back in the direction of the cabin.
He made a choice.
Slowly, Scott moved to sit down on the grass, exactly where he was. In about a quarter hour, he’d
have to start walking to Cleo’s base, at least if he wanted to avoid any hostile mobs on his way
there. Until then, he’d stay right here. For exactly that long, he’d wait for Tango to show up, or
even just send him a message asking where he was.
If nothing happened, well, then he supposed that answered his question on if he should go back or
not.
Scott waited. Five minutes passed.
Tango must hate him again. What if everything that passed between them meant nothing? What if
after all this time, they were back to square one?
Ten minutes.
Scott held his head in his hands. This was pathetic. If Tango found him like this, it would only
make the situation more humiliating.
Fifteen minutes.
Well, that must have been his answer then. As hurtful as it was, there was no changing it. At least
one thing had changed during that time; he’d finally stopped crying.
Scott picked himself up. He was tired (as always), upset, an emotional wreck—Maybe he should
just message Cleo and tell her he wouldn’t be showing up. It’s not as though he needed to, right?
The only reason he needed to be there was so they’d be able to outnumber Ren’s group on the off
chance they’d try and steal the enchanting table. But that clearly wasn’t going to happen. There
wasn’t even a possibility of all three of them showing up. Not that anyone else in their alliance was
aware of that other than him, of course.
But where else was he going to go?

—
Scott had been dragging his feet the entire way there. There were a lot of things on his mind right
now. Tango was of course one of the big ones, but there was also his conversation with Ren that
was now mulling in the back of his mind, growing ever bigger as he made his way to the
lighthouse. Had Ren actually done anything with his advice? What would happen if Impulse told
him about the conversation they had earlier? Would he actually show up with them? Would
anyone show up at all??
“Scott!” A familiar voice shouted at him. Scott saw Etho emerge from behind a part of the
lighthouse, waving at him. “Hey man.”
Scott waved back. “Hey.”
Etho eyed the empty space around him knowingly. “So, I take it Tango decided not to show up?”
Scott felt his heart ache a little, simply opting to respond with a small nod.
“Ah, well, I can’t say I blame him for that.” The other said offhandedly. “Bdubs actually had
something to do too, again.” Etho stressed, clearly at least a little annoyed. “I mean, we’re really
just cutting him in on this deal cause he’s the one who lost a life over that fight the other night, but
personally, I’m getting a little tired of his disappearing act.”
Scott simply nodded along as they walked up to the front door together. He was hardly paying
attention given all that was on his mind in that moment, but what Etho said made him slightly
uncomfortable. Was Bdubs with Impulse again? Did he already know what went down between
them when he came to visit?
“Anyways,” Etho continued. “Just give Tango my best when you head back, yeah?”
Scott swallowed hard. “Sure. Yeah.”
The front door swung open and, to his surprise, Scott came face to face with not only Ren, but
Martyn as well.
“Martyn…” He uttered quietly.
“Hello, Scott.” The other replied, his tone disturbingly much deader than it normally would be.
Scott saw him avoiding eye contact with his teammate. Once again, he was left to wonder if Ren
had actually tried to fix anything with him after he’d left the Skyscraper.
Impulse, it seemed, was nowhere to be found. Scott wondered if he should be thankful for that, or
worried.
“Guess we’re all here then.” Cleo chimed, gesturing with her hands.
“Yeah, I guess we are.” Ren said, sounding less than excited for anything they were about to do.
“So, what were you guys charging for this? It’s by person, right?” Martyn asked.
“Mhm.” Cleo agreed. “We were thinking… twenty diamonds each?”
Scott nearly choked. That seemed a bit steep, not to mention he was fairly certain that Cleo
wouldn’t have offered the same deal to Pearl and her team.
“Oh come on now. Really-?” Martyn said, rolling his eyes in annoyance. “Ten diamonds.”
“No.”
“Fifteen, or I’m leaving.”
Scott watched the two argue back and forth in awe. Was Martyn using his abilities in this exact
moment? Was he able to tell which prices Cleo was using as a way to coax him and which she
would actually settle for?
Cleo paused. “Fine.” She agreed. “Fifteen each.”

“Oh.” Martyn murmured, crossing his arms. “Did you think I was haggling for both our prices?”
He didn’t even bother to look at Ren as he spoke. “Well, I suppose it makes no difference to me.”
Scott could practically feel the tension in the room grow stiff. Martyn really wasn’t pulling any
punches with his annoyance right now. Scott had no idea he was capable of being this ruthless.
Clearly, he was still mad at Ren and he wanted everyone to know it.
Scott chanced a look at the man. His sunglasses did nothing to hide how depressed he was. If Scott
had to guess, he hadn’t yet done anything in terms of following through on his advice. Damn it,
Ren…
“Right… Okay then.” Etho voiced awkwardly. “Just follow us, I guess.”
Not much was said on their way to the portal. Though that likely did nothing to ease the
awkwardness that everyone was feeling. Why did Martyn even show up if he was just going to
berate his ex? His frustration was understandable, but still a little petty, if Scott where being
honest. Not that he’d be one to talk, of course.
Regardless of why, it was still very apparent. That pissed-off look never left Martyn’s eyes, nor did
he ever try to make eye contact with Ren, despite the fact that he seemed to be walking fairly close
to him as they transversed the nether.
At one point, Ren tried a half-hearted attempt to cut through the awkward silence.
“Huh.” He said weakly. “Interesting place to hide the table.”
Etho shrugged in response. “No one ever thinks to check the nether.”
There was another moment of awkward silence between all of them. God, had the journey to
Cleo’s set-up taken this long the last time? Cause this really felt as though it was taking forever.
“Soooo….” Cleo hesitantly started. Scott really wished she hadn’t said anything. “You guys do
anything interesting lately?”
Dead silence.
Why was it he decided to come here again?
“Okay…” Cleo chuckled weakly. “Tough crowd…”
“Don’t take it personally.” Martyn said all of a sudden. “He hasn’t been talking to anyone all day.”
Ren stopped walking.
“Excuse me?”
Oh boy…
“What?” Martyn sneered. “It’s true.”
Ren seemed very offended by this. “Just because I haven’t been talking to you specifically doesn’t
mean I’ve been talking to no one, Martyn.”
Everyone had stopped walking at this point. Cleo tried to calm things down, raising her voice
slightly. “Uh- okay, how about we-“
“Oh that’s just a load of bullshit!” Martyn yelled, his previously cold demeanor now shifting into a
fiery anger.
“Martyn-“
“You’ve done nothing but beg me to talk to you ever since this game began and long before then as
well!” The blonde argued, now finally appearing to have acknowledged his ex’s existence, as he
was glaring straight at him. “And now—what? You just move out of the build completely and
ignore me all of a sudden?”
Scott froze upon hearing that, quickly recalling what he’d told Ren right before he’d left.
“Don’t you think it might be time to—I don’t know… Free him from all this?”
No… Had Ren thought he was suggesting that he stop talking to Martyn altogether? Seriously??
That idiot! He meant tell him the truth! Not give up and leave him alone!!
“Okay-“ Scott heard Ren continue. “I ‘ignored you’ for like- a few hours!” He yelled, throwing his
arms forward. “Oh my god- what is your deal?? You’re mad at me when I try to talk to you; you’re
mad at me when I stay away-!”
“I’m mad at you because you’re a cheating prick!”
Ren groaned. “Not this again-“
“Guys!!” Etho yelled, finally drawing everyone’s attention towards something else.
Scott looked in his direction, noticing he’d walked ahead a little and was now standing a few feet
away from a large, gaping hole in the side of a hill. The exact structure that Cleo had built to hide
the table.
Still-attached lever and all…
“Uh- is that suppose to be open…?” Ren asked nervously.
Immediately, both Etho and Cleo turned to face him.
“Scott??” Cleo asked, concerned.
Scott walked forward slowly, his mind in some kind of trance. Had someone come back to open it?
Was it Bdubs? Maybe Tango somehow??
Scott looked at the lever, and then back at the entrance, wracking his mind for any kind of
explanation.
“What direction were you coming in from anyway?”
Grian.
“I don’t recall there being any portals over there.”
“On no…” Scott breathed, still walking forward.
He’d forgotten to take the stupid lever off the side of the hill after running the table back. And
Grian saw where he was coming from right after that.
Clearly, Ren wasn’t the only idiot among them.
Scott hadn’t noticed at what point he’d suddenly started running, but he did. Etho seemed to follow
next, as did the rest of the group until eventually they were all standing at the entrance and looking
inward to see—
“Grian??” Cleo yelped in surprise. But it wasn’t just Grian there. Both him and Bigb appeared to
be in the middle of storing the table away, Grian with his pic out while Bigb was snatching some of
the other books.
“Oh-!” Grian flinched, holding his hands up in equal surprise.
“Busted.” Bigb whispered, through his teeth.
“Oh for fu—Grian!” Etho yelled, looking between the two of them. “What are you both doing
here? How did you even find this place??”
Grian sighed, grinning slightly. “I had a little help from Scott, actually.”
Everyone turned to look at him. Scott quickly looked to the side, feeling a small blush rise in his
cheeks.
“Here’s an idea.” The avian continued. “Next time you’re making a build that’s meant to stay
hidden, don’t leave the activation lever on the outside of it.”
Scott noticed Etho’s eyes widen from the corner of his vision. He was really starting to wish he
hadn’t shown up now…
“I can explain…” He said weakly, before hesetating slightly, opting instead to just look away
again. “Yeah—actually, no I can’t.” Scott finished sheepishly.
He heard Cleo let out a long, frustrated sigh as she ran a hand through her snake-hair. “It’s fine.”
She stated, turning back to look at the two intruders. “At least we caught them in the act. Plus we
clearly outnumber you guys anyway. What? Was Scar too busy to steal back his own stolen table?”
Bigb looked as though he was about to answer before the group all heard a faint laugh come from
behind them.
“ Heh, ” Martyn chuckled bleakly, gaining everyone’s attention. “You know, I’m surprised he even
trusts you two to go off on your own together.”
Scott looked back to Bigb, who’s expression had hardened greatly. “Well what the heck is that
suppose to mean?”
The room was silent for a moment, before Ren tried to bud in. “Martyn-“
“You know exactly what it means.” Martyn continued. Bigb now seemed more upset than he did
angry, his brows furrowing in frustration.
“That’s low, dude.” He spoke weakly. “I really thought you would have gotten over that by now.”
He looked to the ground, muttering his next words quietly. “I thought we could still be friends
some day…”
“Yeah, well—I really thought we could too. the blond spoke sadly. “But you just—you just had to
go and…”
Scott saw Martyn’s jaw clench in that moment. Maybe it was the anger he’d been feeling earlier
come to rise back up, maybe it was the fact that both Bigb and Ren were in the same room as him
—whatever it may have been, Martyn seemed as though he just couldn’t take this conversation
between them any longer.
He turned to Ren, his entire emotional state now directed at him. “Damn it, Ren!” Martyn yelled.
“Why can’t you just fess up already??”
Ren seemed confused for a second, before a look of both realization and fear seemed to hit him.
“No.” Ren spoke. “Nonono—We’re not doing this here.”
“Ren-“
“You can yell at me all you want once we get back, but not here. Please.”
“Wait.” Bigb said, cutting back in. “Are you guys seriously still fighting about that?”
Ren turned to look at him. “You didn’t know?”
“Well I don’t know anything, Ren.” Bigb said, matter-of-factly. “You don’t fucking talk to me
anymore!”
He grit his teeth, that sad appearance now joining in on his frustration. “I mean—I get it, okay?”
He said, voice quivering just noticeably enough. “I made things a little weird for us during the last
game, but I didn’t think it was that big a deal! I thought we could still just be friends after it. But
instead you stopped talking to me—and then Martyn never even spoke to me after the game—and
I just…”
Martyn’s face fell. In that instance, he seemed to be showing a hint of sympathy towards his old
friend, despite the anger he was clearly still feeling. “Maybe it’s better for both of you that way.”
He replied sadly, glaring at Ren. “I know I wouldn’t want to be friends with a liar.”
“Oh good grief—“ Ren seethed. “ Martyn—“
And that was it. Scott couldn’t do this anymore.
“Just admit you’ve been lying to me already!”
“I’m not lying to you!”
What was the point of keeping this a secret if they were only going to continue this back-and-forth
with each other till one of them blew a fuse? Maybe keeping it to himself was manageable when it
was only Ren who was being harmed by it, and by his own doing no less. But this? This was just
harming everyone. It was insanity in the most literal definition of the word. It was doing something
over and over again while expecting the results to somehow miraculously change. They were
getting nowhere with this. They never would.
“You are!!” Martyn continued yelling, voice shaking.
He had to do it. He couldn’t take it anymore. He had to tell them.
“You’re selfish and you’re a liar and I HATE you-“
Sorry, Jimmy.
“I hate you SO much for this and- and-!”

“-Oh. My. GOD!!”
Scott promptly shut his mouth.
It wasn’t him who had spoken…
“Enough of this!!” Grian shouted louder than all of the voices in that room. “Ren—“ He continued,
now lowering his volume. “Martyn knows you’re lying to him. He’s known this entire time. From
the very beginning.”
The room was now so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Ren tilted his head nervously. “What?”
“Grian.” Martyn grit the word through his teeth. “If you wan’t to ruin our friendship forever, then
just keep talking.”
Grian seemed to be on the verge of tears now. Scott let his gaze fall back on Cleo and Etho for just
a second. they both looked utterly terrified for their friend. Scott wondered if he looked the same.
“I’m sorry, Martyn.” The avian continued. “But Ren’s my friend too. And besides… I’d ruin all of
my friendships if it’d get all the fighting to finally stop.”
Scott watched him face Ren again. “Ren…”
“Don’t-“ Martyn warned one last time. Grian continued none the less.
“—You remember when we were going end-busting once and I was telling you about that old
abandoned server I accidentally discovered where time was coded to slow down?”
Ren stared at him, confused. “I- Yeah-?”

“I actually hate you…” Martyn seethed, pinching the bridge of his nose between his fingers.
“And you remember when I mentioned that I was able to get a sort of… clairvoyance—that stuck
with me even after leaving that server?” Grian continued.
“Yeah man.” Ren replied. “You never really did explain all that-“
“And I’m not going to.” He went on. “Seriously, just trust me when I say it’s a long story.” He took
a deep breath in. “What I’m trying to say—is that Martyn got a similar ability at one point. He can
hear really well.”
Ren paused, before shaking his head. “I know that, Grian. It’s pretty obvious that he-“
“No!” The avian shouted in frustration. “I mean like—really well! Like he can hear the flap of a
butterfly’s wings! Or the sound of a caterpillar chewing on a leaf! Or-!”
“—Or the frantic racing of a cheater’s heart when he’s lying to me.” Martyn finished, drawing
everyone’s attention to him again. He glared at Grian unforgivingly. “Screw you, by the way. If
anyone’s gonna tell it to him after all this time it’s going to be me.”
Scott saw Ren’s jaw fall open slightly. Carefully, he’d removed his sunglasses and stored them
away, his eyes now gazing at his ex with all the concern and confusion in the world. “Martyn…?”
“I know you’re lying, Ren.” Martyn continued, that cold, dead tone of his resurfacing. “I’ve known
since the first time you spoke to me after Double Life, and every time after…” He shook
noticeably, as if his outer facade was coming undone. “And even before then, I was aware of every
time your heart would start racing whenever I came to visit you. Every time it skipped a beat
whenever we touched.” He clenched his fists, head turning away as he tightly shut his eyes. “I
never had to guess whether or not you loved me. I always knew. And I always loved you back.”
The blonde’s eyes shot open again, glaring back at his ex menacingly. “Which is why I gave you
so many fucking chances to tell me the truth!” He yelled. “Because up until that day—you had
never once lied to me…”
Ren looked as though he’d been slapped hard in the face, eyes wide and mouth gaping. On some
level, Scott was grateful that it had been Grian who ended up spilling everything. Sure, Martyn was
different in this state, maybe even a little terrifying, but he could handle that. What he couldn’t
handle, however, was having him hate him for the rest of his life. It simply felt like a sacrifice too
great to make. Something that he wasn’t entirely sure he’d of been able to follow through with had
Martyn threatened him with it.
But Ren… Ren was feeling that exact loss right in this moment. Not out of a split-second decision
that he made, but due to him finally having the negligence and guilt of all his stupid decisions and
actions over the past six months shoved in his face all at once. And boy, did it show.
“I’m going to ask you one more time.” Martyn grit, his patience probably thinner now than it ever
was. “And then, I’ll leave you for good.”
He took a step forward, meeting his ex face-to-face and staring directly into his still-wide eyes.
“Did you cheat on me during Double Life?”
The question hung heavy in the air. Cleo, surprisingly, was quicker to respond than Ren was.
“Hey- lay off him!” She shouted, trying half-heartedly to defend her friend for whatever he may
have done. “It’s not like he could have known-!”
“Cleo.” Scott spoke sadly, putting a hand to her shoulder. “This isn’t about the actual cheating part.
You know it isn’t.”
Cleo looked at him, her face crumbling. He knew then that she knew as well, but what else was she
suppose to do? Just stand there and let Ren ruin his life some more?
Martyn continued glaring at his ex, never once losing focus despite the sudden interruption.
“Well?? He asked fiercely.
And what could Ren do in that moment, other than finally tell the truth?
“I did.” He whispered, completely defeated.

Martyn slumped his shoulders, hands coming up to rub at his face. “ Finally. ” He whispered,
sounding less relieved and maybe something more along the lines of devastated.
“I’m sorry…” Ren breathed gently. “Bab- Martyn.” He reached a hand out, but didn’t dare touch
the other. “I’m so sorry…”
“No.” Martyn snapped, making everyone flinch. “N- you don’t get to make me feel guilty for
this!” He yelled, voice finally revealing a caved-in shake under it. “You don’t!”
Scott wondered if the sudden sadness coming from the blond was a result of his abilities. Was he
able to tell for certain that Ren was genuinely sorry? Was that what he was so upset about?
All of Scott’s internal questions came to a halt the moment Bigb spoke up.
“What the hell? Ren…” He said, shaking his head. “I thought I knew you better.”
Everyone turned to look at Bigb in that moment, most of their faces holding slight looks of
confusion, Scott’s included.
“I mean—“ Bigb continued. “who was it you even cheated on him with?”
Scott froze, as did Ren and Martyn.
He felt his stomach drop.
“Uh-“ Bigb spoke, gazing around the room, seemingly confused at all the shocked pairs of eyes on
him. “Sorry, I guess that was really inappropriate to ask—especially now. I- I just wasn’t really
thinking-“
“Bigb-“ Ren spoke up, looking more puzzled now than distressed. “—I cheated on him with you.”
Bigb jolted. “What??”
“Uh—yeah dude!” Ren restated.
“What the-? No you didn’t!” The other argued back.
“You don’t remember?”
“No, actually, I don’t remember because it never happened!”
Ren blinked, shaking his head. “You must be suffering from some pretty severe amnesia there
dude-“
“Both of you shut up!” Martyn yelled suddenly. Scott was quick to take note of just how baffled he
appeared, his previously stern gaze now frantically looking back and forth between the two as if
they both grew two heads. He waited for a moment with the silence that the two had afforded him.
Was he listening to both their heartbeats just then? Was he trying to hear them clearly now just to
be certain of who was lying?
“H-how??” The blond stuttered, shakily running a hand through his hair. “How are you both… t-
telling the truth??”
Everyone remained silent, all still just as confused as Martyn was.
And then, Scott heard Bigb slap a hand to his forehead.
“Wait a minute…” He said, head in his hands. “No- that’s not—“ He shot his head up, glaring at
Ren in disbelief. “Oh my god—Ren!!” He yelled. “Did you actually consider something as
insignificant as that to be cheating??”
The two stared at each other questioningly.
“I- I am so confused-“ Grian murmured to himself.

“But it was!” Ren argued. “I- I was disloyal to him-“
“Bullshit!” Bigb spat back. “That didn’t even have anything to do with how you felt!”
“Please.” Martyn quivered, his body swaying. “Someone—just- start explaining.”
The two paused to look at him.
“Anyone!” Martyn yelled desperately.
Bigb let out a long sigh, folding his arms against his chest and blushing as he tilted his head to the
side. “It was one kiss.” He muttered anxiously. “Just one. It was like—I don’t know? Two in the
morning, maybe? We were both just hanging out in the box, talking to each other while sleep-
drunk; I was acting stupid, and it just- it just happened.”
He took in another deep breath. Scott noticed how the man continued to eye Grian as he spoke.
“I had been getting a little closer with Ren. Felt like doing something bold, and…” Bigb bit his lip
anxiously before continuing. “Not even half a second had passed and you were pulling away from
me.”
He looked at Ren, eyes betraying just a hint of pain in them.
“Like I was poison…”
Looking at him, the way he was struggling to get the words out, Scott couldn’t help but feel a little
sorry for Bigb in that moment. Of course, getting rejected was tough, but considering what
happened with Grian after the last game, well, having it happen twice in the same week really must
have been setting some kind of record.
“He told me he was sorry but that he wasn’t really looking to start anything like that with anyone.
So of course, I backed off for the rest of the game.” Bigb continued, quickly wiping what Scott
could only assume were the beginnings of tears from his eyes. “I may be dense sometimes, but I
knew well enough back then that I should just take the hint.”
He looked back at Grian, who appeared equally pained.
“But I’m glad I did.” He spoke softly. “Because then I wouldn’t have ever been able to return
Grian’s advances later down the line.”
Grian broke away from his gaze to stare at the ground. He simply shook his head, an apologetic
look on his face. “I’m sorry.” The avian whispered. Whatever he was apparently sorry for seemed
like the beginnings of an entirely different story.
“Wha-? Hang on a minute-“ Cleo spoke up. “What was it you thought Martyn was so mad at you
for then??”
Bigb looked back at Martyn, swallowing. “I thought you were mad at me for what I did to Grian.”
He told him. “Hurting his relationship with Scar the way I did…”
“Bigb-“ Grian spoke, voice falling.
“No, it’s okay.” Bigb replied sadly as he turned back to Grian. “I get it now, Grian. I should have
quit trying to win you back a long time ago. Because this is all I’ll ever be, right?”
He brought his gaze to the floor, smiling sadly.
“Everyone’s second choice…”
Decidedly having said what he felt he needed to, Bigb proceeded to walk out the exit, not daring to
look at anyone as he passed through.
After a few moments, Grian, went into a small panic, shouting Bigb’s name and running after him
while completely ignoring anything that he might have come there for.
What surprised Scott—other than literally everything that had just been said—was Etho, who gave
him and Cleo a concerned look before moving to follow them as well.
Scott had no time to contemplate on if he should go with him before his thoughts were interrupted
by the sound of a body hitting the ground.
“Martyn-!” Ren yelled as he moved to try and catch the blond who had apparently sunken to his
knees.
“All this time…” He murmured to himself, tears prickling at the corners of his eyes. “All these
months I thought you were lying to me—and you’re telling me it was over a stupid peck on the lips
that you didn’t even initiate?” He looked at Ren, still in as much disbelief as he’d been from the
moment Bigb had opened his mouth. “H-how did I even read that as a lie??”
Ren knelt down with him, pulling away to look at the other. “Because it was one.” He claimed.
“Because it felt serious—to me. It felt like cheating, to me. And the more I lied to you, the more I
kept continuing to feel as though I’d betrayed you.”
“Oh you idiot!—No you didn’t!!” Martyn yelled through tears. “I- Wha-?? Is it the dog hybrid in
you or- or something?? Is that what’s making you feel this absurd sense of loyalty towards people
who don’t even deserve it??”
Ren looked at him worriedly. “You deserve it.” He argued. “And I was still the one who was lying
to you all this time. If I had just told you the truth-“
“The truth…” Martyn laughed sadly. “You only lied because you knew it was the one thing
keeping me in your life. Because if you admitted to ‘cheating’ on me, then what else could you
have been lying about—that’s what you assumed I’d think, right? How could I have possibly taken
you for your word after all that if your next claim was that it was only a blind-sided kiss?”
They were both crying now. Scott felt like he should have left by now as well, but this all seemed
so insane to him. He just had to know what was going to happen with them.
“You had no idea I’d be able to confirm that you were telling the truth.” Martyn went on. “If I had
just let you know that—like I should have…”
The blond let out a choked sob before proceeding to bury his face in the crook or Ren’s neck, much
to the other’s apparent surprise. “I guess we’re both liar’s then, aren’t we?” He finished, words
muffled against Ren’s skin.
Scott watched Ren loosen his grip on Martyn, gently pushing him back. At first, the other seemed
worried, as if Ren were rejecting his advances, only for Ren to strongly pull him forward once
more. This time, directing his head to lie right over the left end of his chest. Over his heart.
R- Ren-!” Martyn yelped in surprise before seeming to relax against the sounds he was hearing.
“I love you.” Ren spoke clearly. “I love you. I love you. I love you-“ He repeated, letting the other
listen to his heartbeat, letting him know it was true.
“I always have” He continued. “—and I always will.”
Scott stood there, clenching his fists. He should have been glad over this, right? This had to have
been the better outcome for them. One that neither of the two, nor him, even saw as a possibility.
“I love you too.” Martyn whispered through tears. Still holding on to Ren. Still listening to his
heart. “And I’m so, so sorry…”
Scott suddenly felt sick.
He grimaced, turning around to finally walk out of that room.
“Scott-?” He heard Cleo say, quickly. But he didn’t bother to stop. He just needed to get out of
there. Now.
He continued walking, past the large hill, past the warped trees, until he was a good distance away
from the enchanting room.
“Scott!”
Cleo had caught him just then, grabbing his arm and spinning him around. “Scott—where are you-
?”
“Why is it so easy for them, Cleo??” He yelled suddenly, unsure if he was angry, sad, jealous, or
possibly all three. “Why do they get to have everything all fixed and perfect just like that??”
Scott knew that wasn’t entirely true. It took Ren and Martyn months just to get to this point. And
even then, who says they had everything resolved? A lot of anger was thrown between them during
all that time. They probably still had more than their fair share of holes to patch.
But still, at least they now had a chance to fix things. At least they got another shot at happiness.
Cleo looked at him, her expression confused at first before it slowly softened into one of
understanding. “I don’t know.” She admitted, shaking her head. “A few breakups are like that, but
most are also messy and painful and sometimes there’s no resolution to be found at all.”
Scott bit his lip. He didn’t know what he’d expected to hear. What did Cleo know about this kind
of thing? What did any of them know?
“I suppose…” She went on. “They just happened to get lucky with theirs.”
Scott felt his eyes clouding up. Damn it. Not again.
“Oh Scott…” Cleo whispered, pulling his flimsy body into a tight hug. Scott was a complete
wreck. He knew that much. But at least making a fool of himself in front of Cleo was less painful
than doing it in front of Tango.
“I messed up, Cleo.” He whined. “With Jimmy… W-with Tango-“
He felt Cleo flinch.
“Tango?”
Scott pulled back, wiping part of his tear-stained face with a shaky hand. “He tried to do something
nice for me and I just-“
Just what? Lost it at the gesture of offering poppies as a gift? Because he thought that despite
everything, Tango was still trying to hurt him in some screwed up way? Because it reminded him
so much of Jimmy?
“Cleo?” Scott asked, trying to regain his composure.
“Yes?”
He swallowed hard, hesitating before deciding that whatever he said next didn’t matter. That it
wouldn’t change anything.
I still love him.” He spoke “I still love Jimmy.”
Cleo continued staring at him, eyes calm and knowing.
“—But you already knew that, didn’t you?” Scott asked. And all Cleo could do in return was smile
sadly and nod.
God, he hated how this was coming up now of all times. If Ren and Martyn’s whole display had
done anything for him, it was at least giving him something else to pay attention to other than all
these terrible thoughts plaguing his mind. But now that he’d seen things get resolved, they were all
coming back. Jimmy’s death, Tango offering him flowers, Impulse and his stupid judgy claims that
clearly demonstrated to him that the man had no idea what the was talking about.
Unless…
“Cleo you- you think that’s why I’m still playing this game with Tango, right?” Scott asked,
folding his arms around his torso. “Cause if I can get close to him…, th- then-“
Cleo watched him, blinking slowly. “Scott.” She said.

Scott waited nervously for her answer.
“—Why on earth would anyone who knows you ever assume something like that?”
Just like that, Scott felt his shoulders slump, the weight in his chest getting lifted, if only a little.
“He’s really fond of you, you know.” Cleo added, smiling softly.
Scott hadn’t expected her to say that.
“I swear…” She chuckled, shaking her head. “every time he decided to talk about anything while
we were at Pearl’s, it had something to do with you.”
Scott’s breath hitched. Did Tango really get excited over him? Talk about him when he wasn’t
even around? Why did knowing that just make him feel worse?
“I need to go back.” Scott breathed, speaking more to himself in that moment than to Cleo.
He needed to go back. No, he should have gone back the moment he realized he’d been mistaken.
He shouldn’t have come here, he shouldn’t have even waited for Tango to come to him in the
beginning. He should have turned right around and explained everything to him because he cared
what Tango thought about him, but more importantly he cared about Tango.
“I- I have to…” Scott looked up at Cleo, her eyes seeming to have read his anxiousness perfectly.
“I mean-“ Scott stuttered, remembering why he came here in the first place. “Sorry—first, we
should definitely deal with-“
“Go.” Cleo said, waving her hand. “It’s okay. I can handle the- erm- love birds…”
“A- Are you sure-?”

“Scott!” Cleo emphasized, continuing her waving. “Seriously, I owe you this one. Go.”
Admittedly, Scott was a little relieved that Cleo was okay with handling… whatever this mess was.
Scott nodded his head at her eagerly before doing exactly as she said and headed off in the
direction of the portal.
Chapter End Notes
I have been waiting to write and post this chapter almost ever since I first came up
with the story idea good god it feels so good to finally get it up here
Petal
Chapter Summary
Tango makes some less than comforting connections between flowers and Jimmy.
Scott returns to him with a proposal.
Chapter Notes
Bit of a shorter chapter today. Hope you still enjoy this one!
Jimmy always seemed to act strangely whenever he’d receive flowers. Not scared or blatantly
upset like Scott seemed to be, just strange.
It’s not as though they were some sort of defining love language between them. If anything,
Tango’s displays of love normally involved complementing Jimmy when he seemed like he really
needed to hear it, or using his redstone knowledge to help fix something around Tumble Town, or
showering him in kisses and physical affection. But when all of his own personal displays of love
were put aside, what good partner wouldn’t get his boyfriend flowers from time to time?
At least, that’s what he assumed would be a good idea. The first time Tango gave Jimmy a flower
was completely unplanned. They were taking a walk over to Lizzie’s empire about a month into
their relationship. They passed a small field of daffodils and, without thinking much of it, Tango
had plucked a small one up from it’s stem and caught his boyfriend off guard by gently placing it
in his hair.
“There.” He’d said, jokingly. “That looks a lot prettier than your sheriff’s hat, don’t you think?”
Jimmy’s reaction was a bit unexpected at first. In that moment, it was as though Tango had pressed
some kind of pause button on him, as all he seemed capable of doing for a solid five seconds was
blinking quietly.
The moment Tango showed the first sign of visible confusion was when he noticed Jimmy
swallow hard before flashing him his own grin in return and rolling his eyes.
“‘Pretty’ doesn’t get me any respect around here.” He teased back.
And that was that.
But it wasn’t just the first time in which Jimmy had reacted oddly to flowers. The second time, was
much later in their relationship, when the tension on Hermitcraft seemed to finally be dying down.
Tango had insisted that they celebrate it and asked Jimmy if he could come over to his server and
perhaps finally be introduced as his boyfriend to a small handful of his friends who hadn’t been
part of the Life games but were starting to try and make amends with him again. Tango
remembered Jimmy insisting that while he’d love to do that eventually, they should still tread
lightly and take this one step at a time.
Tango had agreed to some extent, and so, when his boyfriend did come over, it was at night, and it
was simply a celebration between the two of them. The weather was perfect, the moon was full,
and Tango had set up a lovely outdoor dinner for them in addition to a dancing space lit up with
lamps and glowberries. He remembered Jimmy gushing over everything as soon as he arrived,
telling him that he didn’t need to do all that. But of course, Tango wanted to. He wanted that night
to feel special for both of them. And as cliche as it was, the first thing he did was offer Jimmy a
bouquet of roses he’d collected.
Jimmy had reacted differently this time than he had with the daffodils. At the time, Tango hadn’t
taken his reaction to have been a negative one. If anything, it seemed positive. Jimmy flinched
slightly before gasping as Tango summoned the bright red flowers into his hands. Weirdly enough,
the other’s gasp sounded less like one that may have come about from a pleasant surprise and more
along the lines of a small frightened shock. But Jimmy never gave any actual signs that he’d
disliked the gift, admiring them for a short while before smiling, thanking him, and quickly storing
them away in his own inventory.
And once again, Tango hadn’t thought much of it.
The third time was more recently, right before Grian had announced anything in regards to trying
out a new Life game.
Both he and Jimmy had been very busy that week for their own respective reasons and could
hardley find the time to see each other as often as they normally did, or even go on a real date.
Though it wasn’t that long and they did still talk over chat every day, Tango still longed to see his
partner in person again.
When things finally settled down, he came to visit Jimmy on Empires. This time, when he knocked
on the other’s door, he had in hand a bouquet of bright, red poppies. Why that flower specifically?
Tango couldn’t say for sure. All he really knew was that he wanted to give Jimmy something
sweet, but not so romantic that he might considered it a bit over the top in this case, like with the
roses. And so, poppies it was.
Tango went in for a swift and greedy kiss on the cheek the moment Jimmy opened the door. His
boyfriend smiled, eyes shut and laughing giddily at the surprise affection. Tango pulled back
eventually, holding the bouquet out to Jimmy as he opened his eyes again.
This time, his reaction was much more intense.
Like the first time, Jimmy had looked as though he was frozen stiff. And for just a few seconds, he
remained like that.
Then, tears began to flow from his eyes.
“Oh Tango,” He’d said sweetly through soft hiccups. “You shouldn’t have…”
Tango recalled being slightly concerned at first. Jimmy had always been an emotional person, that
he knew for sure. But crying over a small gift was new, even for him.
He watched as Jimmy once again swiftly stored the flowers in his inventory before going back in to
embrace him. Tango remembered feeling stiff, reaching up hesitantly to hug him back. “Hey,”
He’d whispered. “Is everything okay?”
“Everything is wonderful.” The other replied. “I just… missed you so much.”
Ah, so that must have been why he was emotional. Tango had smiled, sighing in relief.
And they both left it at that.
Now, Tango lay in his bed, staring at the ceiling, playing back each of these moments in his head
as if rewinding a part of a movie so as to catch something suspicious he thought he might have
noticed in the background. Each of these events had simply existed as part of the mountain of
happy memories he’d made with Jimmy. But in that moment, he was observing them with a
different, much more unsettling perspective in mind.
“Oh Angel…” Tango whispered as if Jimmy could hear him somehow. For the first time since his
partner had died, he found himself suddenly wishing that he’d chosen to stick around as a ghost
rather than fall asleep in the void for the remainder of the game. Though he knew the former was
unlikely.
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
Tango’s voice was hoarse despite the minimal amount of talking he’d been doing in the past few
hours. He laid on his back, staring up at the ceiling while gripping a pillow tightly against his
chest, as if holding it would do anything to comfort him at all.
“I wouldn’t have thought any less of you. You know I wouldn’t…”
Tango felt his throat clog up as he fought back tears. God, he just wanted to see Jimmy again and
talk all this through with him, however he might go about doing that. Even if it was near
impossible, he had to at least try to find a way to fix this, and the only way to do that was either
through him, or through—
Tango heard the door open slowly. He peered his head up from where he was lying, checking to
see who was suddenly entering.
There, wearing a concerned expression, was his missing teammate.
For a second, they both just stared at each other. That seemed to be routine with them at this point,
though Tango couldn’t say in confidence that he minded it, really.
“You came back.” The blaze stated bluntly, never once breaking eye contact.
“And you’re still here…” Scott replied, seeming just as amazed by that fact as Tango was by his
return. He blinked, quirking a concerned brow. “Did you think I wouldn’t come back?”
Tango watched as he slowly moved to close the door, walking over to where he was as the blaze
moved to sit up fully. “I honestly didn’t know what to think.”
Scott shook his head. “I can’t say I blame you for that.” He eyed an empty spot on the bed, as if
silently asking for permission to sit down. Tango slid over, giving him some room.
For a moment, Scott just sat there, looking as though he were contemplating what to say next.
Tango noticed a slight blush tinting his cheeks.
Once again, he decided to beat him to it.
“They reminded you of him, didn’t they?” He asked. Scott suddenly swerved his head around to
lock eyes with him again, his expression now seeming more panicked and surprised.
“Something about them, anyway.” Tango continued calmly. “I’m not sure what exactly, but I think
I understand why you didn’t like having them given to you by me of all people.”
Scott sighed, running a hand through his hair worriedly. “It’s- it’s complicated…”
Tango hummed, trying to show some level of understanding—because he did understand, at least
he’d like to think he did now. Thinking back on Jimmy’s reactions definitely helped him make the
connection. For a man who was normally so emotional, Jimmy was surprisingly good at holding in
—no, disguising his emotions when he wanted to.
“Why didn’t you come after me?” Scott said next. Tango tilted his head questioningly.
“Or, like,” He continued. “just message me? If you would have messaged me… I would have come
back sooner.”
Tango frowned, opening his mouth to answer before Scott quickly added more to his statement.
“Did you not want me back? Cause I can understand if you didn’t-“
“No-!” Tango replied a bit too frantically. Scott stopped talking, eyes darting back and forth in
slight confusion as he waited for him to elaborate.
“I don’t know…” Tango spoke again hesitantly. “I guess I—I just figured I should let you go this
time.”
Scott leaned in. “‘This time’?”
The blaze sighed. “When Jimmy died and you wanted to leave. I didn’t let you go. Even though
you clearly wanted to get away from me.”
Scott’s eyes gleamed with a hint of recognition. He must have been recalling those same events in
that moment. As for the events of a few hours ago, Tango was at least somewhat surprised when
he didn’t suddenly vanish as a result of Scott deciding to finally off himself in whichever way he
chose to. But the more time he spent thinking about what happened between them, about what
giving flowers seemed to have meant to Jimmy in the past, the more things started to make sense.
And even then, Tango wouldn’t have faulted Scott for wanting to leave after that. Just as he
wouldn’t have for any other reason. In the end, the choice to stay was his.
“I’m fucking glad you didn’t.” Scott replied suddenly, his words clear and unmistakable.
Still, Tango was shocked by what he heard. “What-??” He stuttered, shooting his head up.
“Show me your gift again.”
Tango looked at Scott oddly. The man was moving way too fast in this conversation and that was
suspicious. Not to mention that, for obvious reasons, he was still hesitant to take the flowers back
out again.
Scott looked at him expectantly, and when all Tango could do was blink at him, he rolled his eyes.
“Here.” He stated, extending his arm out. “Hold this.”
He wasn’t handing him anything. All Tango saw was an empty, open hand.
He looked up at Scott. Then back down at the hand. Then back up to Scott. “Your… hand?”
Scott, as confirmation, made an insistent gesture in shoving his arm forward once more, hand still
open and waiting.
Awkwardly, Tango moved his own hand to hover over the other’s, before slowly placing it down
fully. He soon felt Scott’s fingers wrap around his hand in a firm, but still comforting grip. Without
thinking, he did the same, locking them in together.
Tango gazed down at both their hands curiously. His was bigger than Scott’s, a little more tanned
too. Yet, in contrast, Scott’s hand felt strangely warm considering his whole ‘ice’ deal. To that
extent, it also felt soft and smooth, maybe even a bit delicate. Which made little sense to Tango, as
the other always seemed so headstrong and active, not to mention hardworking given the few
glimpses Tango had gotten of his empire, in addition to everything he’d accomplished in the
games. He felt as though he should have noticed this the first time he’d taken his hand in his own
when they’d been running through that forest in the dark. But then, unlike now, he wasn’t paying
much attention.
And yet, how it felt physically wouldn’t have made any difference to Tango. Right now, he was
focused only on how they were holding hands.
And how he felt no urge to let go…
“There.” Scott said, breaking Tango out of his trance. The blaze swiftly tilted his head up to look
back into the other’s eyes. “Now if I try to run away again, you can stop me.” He grinned.
Tango quickly realized what he meant, his face growing hot. “Oh good grief—Scott I know you
won’t-“
“Do you?” Scott asked knowingly.
Tango sat there, quiet.
“Fine.” He admitted. Maybe he was a little scared of him running off again. Or more so of just
harming Scott in general. But Scott seemed really adamant on trying this again. And peering into
his eyes, Tango found it difficult to consider saying ‘no’.
Tightening his grip on Scott’s hand ever so slightly, he summoned the bouquet out of his inventory
and into his other hand, watching Scott the entire time for any signs of distress. Thankfully, he
didn’t see any. Slowly Scott reached over to take them, casually settling back in his original
position as he held the bundle up to his face to smell them. Tango was still watching him.
He looked so lovely like this.
“They’re beautiful.” Scott murmured, offering the blaze a kind smile.
“You don’t have to lie.” Tango replied softly.
“I’m not lying.” The other insisted. He spoke warmly; Tango felt as though his voice should not
have relaxed him as much as it did.
“Thank you.”
Oh… God… How could someone who was panicking and running away from him a few hours ago
be looking at him so warm and beautifully right now?
Despite all the displays of comfort and appreciation, in that moment, Tango felt terrified. He’d
been terrified ever since this morning when those unexpected thoughts crossed his mind. Scott was
beautiful. There was no denying that that was how he saw him now. But it was trying to figure out
where that beauty seemed to come from or why he was even thinking this way all of a sudden that
scared Tango the most.
Just what was Scott to him?
Tango watched as Scott stored the flowers away, carefully releasing his hand as he did. Tango
couldn’t help but feel upset over the loss of contact.
“I’m sorry I kind of— lost it —a little back there…” Scott continued, smiling awkwardly as he
rubbed his shoulder.
“It’s okay.” Tango gripped the sheets under him as if unconsciously searching for a substitute for
Scott’s hand. “We just-“
The blaze bit his lip, searching for the right words to say. He knew this wasn’t anything new with
them. First was the burning of the decoy base, then the fight that broke out when him and Jimmy
refused to attack Impulse, then this… It was getting to be a little ridiculous. A little too out of hand.
What good was any kind of communication between them going to be if all their progress could be
reset in a moment just by unintentionally saying the wrong words or doing the wrong thing?
Tango swallowed. “—We both really need to stop getting angry at each other over things we never
even let on about.” He finished, hoping that those words wouldn’t make Scott any more upset.
But instead, they seemed to have done the opposite. Scott seemed a bit scared then, but also
determined— different.
“So how about we fix that then?” He said, voice even and steady. “How about we tell each other…
Everything?”
Tango stilled, staring back at Scott and blinking slowly. “ Everything? ”
Scott smiled sadly, nodding. “I want to know what passed between you and Jimmy during Double
Life. At least, what you’re comfortable with telling me.”
Tango’s eyes widened. Could he really be asking…? No, he couldn’t be—now??
“Or—we could ask each other questions.” He continued, rephrasing his idea. “Go back and forth,
whatever. I just want to know, Tango. To understand.”
Tango felt his heart begin to race. He tried not to let it show. “Why now?” He asked calmly. “Why
are you suddenly so okay with talking about everything?”
Scott sighed. “Well, first of all, I’m not really all that ‘okay’ about it-“
“Wha-? Then don’t tell me!” Tango urged.

“—Buuut…” Scott chimed back in. “While I was away, I went to Cleo’s.” He said, folding his
hands in his lap. “And let’s just say, something happened there that made me rethink a lot of things
about honesty—and just the way we’ve been communicating in general, really.”
Well, that was odd to hear. What could have happened at Cleo’s that influenced him so deeply?
Had she said something to him? Maybe convinced him of something? Tango supposed the details
didn’t matter much. Though he was curious.
“I want to talk to you, Tango.” Scott said in all seriousness. “I think… you’re the only person I’d
be at least a little okay with telling these things to.”
Tango looked at him, confused. “ Me…?”
Scott nodded. “Everyone else would feel sorry for me. You’re the only one who’d actually listen.
Who’d understand. ”
Scott seemed to hesitate on his next words, voice shaking slightly as he spoke.
“Because you love him too. ”
Tango froze. This had to have been the first time that Scott was actually acknowledging such a
thing. Obviously, he hadn’t blamed him for never bringing it up. In fact, it was his own
understanding that Scott had outright rejected the idea, that he was still convinced that he couldn’t
have possibly loved Jimmy on a serious level.
What changed?
Second to that question, was the feeling of guilt that hit Tango much stronger than it ever had
before. Scott wasn’t trying to make him feel sorry for what he did anymore. In fact, that seemed to
have been the last thing he wanted out of him now. All he wanted was to talk to him normally for
once, fully acknowledging what it was they were to each other. Two people, in love with the same
person, in the most screwed up love triangle imaginable. Only Scott wasn’t even aware of that right
now.
He still thought Jimmy was over him.
“This is so bizarre…” Tango voiced, trying to mask his guilt with confusion. At least that part
wasn’t a lie necessarily. This was bizarre. They both had to have been painfully aware of that.
“Only if you make it.” Scott replied, a light hint of laughter in his words.
“I’m not trying to!” Tango exclaimed, burying his now blushing face in his hands. He felt part of
the bed sink in as Scott dragged himself just the smallest bit closer to him. Tango wondered if the
other could feel the heat coming off of his body from that distance.
“How about I go first then?” Scott suggested. Tango peered up at him, feeling a little less awkward
at the notion. “We don’t have to say everything tonight, just… eventually. That sound good to
you?”
Tango sighed. This outcome did seem more favorable to him, but only if Scott really was alright
with it. “It does, yeah. He said back. “But if things get too uncomfortable for you, whether that be
while you’re talking or when I am, you’d better tell me, okay?”
Scott looked to the ground, nodding gently.
Tango shook his head. “Gonna need you to actually say it-“
“Oh my- yes! Fine!” Scott blurted out somewhat frantically. Tango really hoped that his sudden
increase in volume was a result of annoyance rather than nervousness. “You don’t have to treat me
like I’m glass anymore.” He finished, voice now lowering.
Tango stared at him, his heart sinking.
“I never saw you that way.” He spoke quietly. Scott was quick to turn his head at him, looking
partially surprised upon hearing the words. And if Tango were being honest, he was a bit surprised
at them himself. But they were true. “You’ve always been stronger than me.” He continued. Scott
only sighed, shaking his head unbelieving.
“I’m not lying.” Tango insisted strongly, practically throwing the other’s own words back in his
face. Scott really was amazing to him. They both had a tendency to run away from their problems.
That trait, they seemed to have in common. But at least Scott had the guts to own up to that part of
him, to try and fix things like he did after he’d burned the decoy base down, after deciding to stay
in the game rather than jump off a ravine, right in this moment, when’d he’d decided to come back
even when Tango wouldn’t have faulted him for choosing to leave right then and there.
Scott looked back at him in disbelief, but they both said nothing more, simply opting to let the
statement hang in the air for the time being.
He was thankful that Scott felt as though they didn’t need to discuss everything right now. They
only had to say some parts tonight. Then, they could work up towards the rest later. But there was
one thing Tango knew he wouldn’t be able to tell Scott. Not when Jimmy wasn’t here to let him.
Not when it was his partner’s secret and not his own.
He couldn’t let Scott know that Jimmy still loved him. Not until they were out of this game and
back with him.
It was an hour later when they’d finally began. They both sat around a makeshift table, eating a late
dinner with mugs of tea to calm them down.
As promised, Scott was the first to start.
“Petal.” He said quietly, hands gripping around his mug tightly.
“I called him Petal…”

Poppies and Kisses
Chapter Summary
Tango and Scott recount some of their interactions with Jimmy during Third Life and
Double Life. They both have many regrets.
Chapter Notes
“Oh! I’ve got something for you.” Jimmy spoke gleefully as he summoned a flower from his
inventory. “There you go.” He said, handing it over to Scott.
Scott held it gently, smirking as he observed the plant’s beauty. “Awwww…” He replied jokingly.
“I’ve confessed my love.” Jimmy laughed.
“We’re married now.”
“—for poppies.” He finished quickly. Scott smiled up at him, laughing.
“Nope!” He grinned. “For me.”
He noticed the other blush slightly at that. Even though Scott had only known him for a short
while, it was clear that he was the type to get flustered easily. Not that he was complaining, of
course.
One short mining session later and they were eventually making their way back up to the surface,
his newfound friend trailing behind him as they both climbed out of the cave. It was such an odd
feeling knowing that everyone on this server had willingly had their memories altered through
some new modification that Grian had managed to make to this world. The idea seemed so
eccentric. And yet, here they were, playing this new game just as it was intended to be played.
Scott glanced back at the friendly “stranger” walking beside him. He was nice, he’d give him that.
Awfully cute too, in a unique sort of way.
Scott peered back down at the flower he’d been hanging on to, observing it fondly.
—And charming. A little charming as well.
Over the course of the day, he had to assume that they were both thinking the same thing, as was
everyone else in this game who’d come across another player. Had they been good friends outside
of this server? Did they live together? Could they have even been something more than that?
Scott smelled the sweetness of the poppy once more before tucking it away in his inventory.
You know what? Maybe it didn’t matter right now what they’d been. Whatever it was, its not as
though this game would damage that relationship. If anything, it might even make it stronger after
a while. And besides, why shouldn’t he stick with this guy? He did like him, after all.
He liked Jimmy…
“Do you think it’s stupid that I’m this upset about Rancher’s Revenge dying?” Tango muttered out
loud. His body laid splayed out across a bed as he lazily let one arm and one leg dangle off the side
of it.
“I’ve never thought you stupid for anything.” Jimmy replied, looking up from his comm with a
concerned expression.
“Until now?”
His partner smiled at him softly, shaking his head. “No. Never.”
Tango sighed, as he continued to stare up at the ceiling. For some reason, even when he’d had
trouble doing so with other people in the past, he believed Jimmy right away, his chest swelling
with a certain tender feeling upon hearing the words.
Oh… and there were the feelings again.
It hadn’t been so long ago that Tango had finally accepted his feelings for what they were. He
wanted badly to belong to Jimmy, and for Jimmy to belong to him. Not as a partner in a game, or
even as a friend, but something more even—as greedy as he felt for thinking that way. But all
things considered, his worst fear as of right then was that Jimmy felt absolutely none of this in
return. That when this game ended, god forbid they lived on different home servers, his soulmate
would simply smile, wish him farewell, and that would be that. Their relationship would have
started and ended with this game.
Tango just couldn’t accept something like that.
“Scott copied our ranch idea.” The blaze muttered up at the ceiling, as if trying to shut his thoughts
up, to think of anything other than an outcome so irrational, yet still terrible.
“So I’ve seen.” Jimmy said, raising an eyebrow.
“You know what would be funny?” He continued, pointing out the window facing Scott’s base. “If
we just reshaped that ‘R’ into a giant ‘L’.”
Jimmy snorted, placing a hand to his mouth as if to stifle a laugh.
Tango wished he wouldn’t do that. He loved hearing his soulmate’s laugh.
“That’d be really petty.” Jimmy replied.
A beat of silence passed between them.
“Let’s do it.” He finished, grinning mischievously.
Tango grinned back.

It took them all of five minutes to do just that. They both were laughing the entire time, and over
something so simple too. It was refreshing, at the very least.
Tango wondered if Jimmy was humoring him this time simply because he thought of this as a way
to take both their minds off the death of their beloved warden. He would have been at least half
right in that assumption. Really, this was Tango’s idea of getting his mind off his fear of the game
ending, of Jimmy leaving, etc. And it did help in some ways. Messing around with Jimmy as a
means of distracting himself from, well, Jimmy—was admittedly odd, but it was effective. If
anything, every smile the other gave him would provide him with at least a little reassurance that
no, he wouldn’t just leave him after the game ended. Jimmy liked being around him.
They both liked being around each other.
“That was mean.” The canary spoke after they’d been back at their base for a while. Although his
still devious smile did nothing to convince Tango that he had any regrets.
“Whaaat?” The blaze grinned, quirking his head to the side. “I still think it was funny.”
Jimmy smiled, shrugging his shoulders. “I kinda want to visit it again, actually.”
Tango hummed. “Any particular reason?”
“Well, I guess it would make us look less suspicious if we walk in there all ignorant and innocent-
looking.”
“That is a good point…”
After coming in for a simple greeting, neither of them really expected to get pulled into a series of
trust exercises made for soulmates who were having “relationship problems”. They, of course,
were having none of those at the moment, but that didn’t stop Scott from insisting they participate.
“Did you want to try some of the couple things here?” Scott asked eagerly.
“Uuuuhhhhh…” They both hesitated.

“Lemme show you!”
And so, they tried it out.
There was a lot of… pain—involved. Dulled-down pain, of course, but they still took a lot of
damage together, especially during that one ice activity. Jimmy seemed to think it a miracle that
neither of them died during that bit, but Tango knew himself that he’d never let that happen. He’d
already let them both die once during this game; he wasn’t about to let it happen again on his
watch, and for such a ridiculous reason too.
All in all, he’d actually ended up having a bit of fun during all the trust exercises. Pleasantly
enough, Jimmy seemed to be feeling the same way, even if they did fail the majority of them. But
really, it just got him thinking about how far they’d come together from being practically strangers,
to partners, to friends…
He watched his soulmate as he laid on his back on the ground, laughing to a point where it was
seemingly difficult for him to get back up. They’d just gotten done doing an exercise that required
him to place water under his partner to break his fall at just the right moment, which he’d
embarrassingly failed to do.
“I feel betrayed.” The canary joked dramatically.
Tango continued looking at him for a short moment before smiling and breaking into his own light
laughter. “Sorry about that, rancher.” He made his way over to the other and offered a hand to help
him up. Jimmy took it, their eyes locking onto each other in that instance.
Tango stared into his partner’s eyes, still full of happiness despite the outcome of the exercise. So
seemingly entranced by who they were looking at, as were his own.
Perhaps it was the fact that they’d been spending the whole day together having pointless fun and
distracting each other, but strangely enough, in that particular moment, Tango felt all his doubts
subside, as if every one of his fears and anxieties had immediately left his body.
Jimmy wouldn’t just leave him once the game was done. He had no way of confirming that theory,
but in that instance, in his soul, Tango knew it had to be true. He just knew the other had to have
seen him as something more than a random partner for a game.
“Nice eyes.”
They both turned their heads to see Scott, still standing off to the side.
Tango raised an eyebrow at the comment. “Huh?”
“Your pupils.” Scott said, casually pointing a finger at his face. “They’re like, the size of grapes.”
It was one, single, offhanded comment that Scott had given him.
And yet, Tango felt as though the entire world had caved in around him.
“Yeah.” Jimmy agreed, now taking a closer look at him. “Is this normal? Are you okay?”
Tango stood there, still as a statue. He could hardly find the words to respond. How absolutely
inconvenient that this had to happen now of all times. But regardless of how or when this may have
played out, another thing was now entirely certain to Tango in that moment.
He was completely, utterly, in love with his soulmate.
“I…” Tango spoke hesitantly, unable to even breathe correctly as he tried to manifest the right
words. What the hell was he suppose to say to that?? He couldn’t just tell Jimmy the truth!
“You look a bit like an alien, actually.” Scott spoke again suddenly, his words doing absolutely
nothing to calm Tango’s racing heart. “A really cute one though! Just cause they’re yellow right
now, and really big, heh.” Scott laughed lightly, completely unaware of the absolute internal crisis
Tango was going through right now.
“Hey, don’t be a jerk.” Jimmy spoke up, glaring at Scott.
“Sorry.” Scott said, holding a hand up. “They just look kinda weird, right?”
Tango looked back at Jimmy, who was now gritting his teeth and flashing Scott a look of absolute
rage. “God—okay, we’re leaving.” He spat. Tango felt him start to walk away, their hands still
interlocked as his partner used his own momentum to drag his still-shocked and stiff body along
with him.
“Wha-? Oh come on! I didn’t mean to be rude. I was just joking around!” Scott yelled as they both
started to walk away, Tango still following somewhat unconsciously.
He saw Jimmy turn heel for a final time to look back in Scott’s direction. “How would you like it if
someone made fun of you for a perfectly ordinary human trait?” He said, still very annoyed on
Tango’s behalf. “Like—ugh, I don’t know? Sweating? Or something?”
Tango looked to Scott. The man frowned.
“Yeah.” Jimmy stated. “Sound’s pretty mean and ridiculous to be taunted for something normal
that you can’t control, doesn’t it?” He scoffed, turning back around to continue his pacing. “Let’s
go, Tango.”
The blaze turned his head to look back at Scott one last time.
He simply stood there, saying nothing.
It was a short while into their walk back home when Tango was able to speak up, having finally
gained his bearings back, and hopefully, having had his eyes go back to normal now.
Tango looked down, feeling the comforting squeeze of his soulmate’s hand in his. They’d been
holding hands a lot lately. It was certainly something he enjoyed.
“…So,” He muttered sheepishly, having finally found his voice again. “you’re not gonna ask-?”
“You don’t owe me an explanation.” Jimmy spoke right away, an irritated look still in his eyes. He
really did seem mad at Scott, even if what he said was more so just rude rather than antagonizing.
“You don’t owe that to anyone.”
The statement was left hanging in the air, plain and simple. If his pupils growing large was some
kind of signal for distress, then he’d be free to tell Jimmy and Jimmy would help him however he
could. But if he chose not to tell him, regardless of what it meant, then that was okay too. It didn’t
have to be a big deal, and it didn’t have to be explained.
Jimmy understood him so perfectly…
“Thank you, for that.” He replied genuinely. The canary tilted his head to look at him, giving him
an understanding smile. “I know standing up to people always seems to get you nothing but the
short end of the stick in life, so believe me when I say—that meant a lot to me.”
His soulmate didn’t reply, only continued walking forward and looking ahead.
Tango continued to hold his hand. If his grip were to increase ever so slightly, he hoped the other
would neglect to notice it.
He loved Jimmy. Actually loved him. That fact was much easier to swallow now that he’d had a
little time to process it. And the more he thought on it, the more it made sense to let him know that.
As scary as doing such a thing might be, Jimmy wasn’t stupid. Maybe he would have been able to
make him believe that his pupils dilating meant something else entirely, but that could only
convince him for so long. If they continued to be near each other, then this incident would just
keep happening again and again. Jimmy would catch on eventually. There was no way he
wouldn’t. So either he could leave his soulmate to figure it out on his own—whenever that may
end up happening, or he could summon some bravery and let him know now. Straight to his face.
Oh god…
“You mean a lot to me.” Tango added, despite every cell in his body screaming at him to shut up.
Jimmy stopped walking in that instance and Tango immediately regretted saying those words. But
one thing remained unchanged.
Jimmy never let go of his hand.

“Yeah,” He replied bleakly, looking to the ground. “well… I can’t promise that I’ll always be able
to get us out of trouble. Goodness knows I’m usually the cause of it anyway.”
Tango felt his heart pounding in his chest. This was the worst kind of torture.
“—And I know we did end up failing most of those trust exercises, but that doesn’t mean I don’t
trust you, and that I won’t always try my best to have your back like you’ve had mine.”
That… was a different kind of answer than he was expecting.
Tango squeezed the other’s hand again. “Jimmy…”
“I mean that, Tango.” Jimmy said sternly, raising his head to lock eyes with him again. “Even after
this game ends—whatever we may be to each other on the outside—I still want to be there for you.
I still want to be in your life.”
Tango’s eyes widened as he took a second to process those words. Everything’s he’d been hoping
for, all the feeling’s he’d been wanting his soulmate to share, all of it had just been undoubtably
confirmed.
“I-“ Jimmy went on, his cheeks flushing a mild tint of pink. “I’ve never met another person like
you before…”
Tango had nearly wanted to cry out of joy, but that statement just made him quietly shake his head.
“That you remember.” He corrected. Because how could they possibly know just how unique they
really were for each other with the memory block still in place?
But Jimmy only smiled at that. Carefully, he moved to take Tango’s other hand in his, holding him
as if he were something precious. “You know? I get the feeling that still holds true regardless.”
“So you’re telling me you’ve never met someone who’s reckless? Emotional? More than a little
unstable?” The blaze was feeling so many emotions just then. He could hardly keep track of what
he was saying.
The other frowned. “You’re listing off your traits to me as if they’re things I’m suppose to dislike.”
“Aren’t they?”
Jimmy shook his head. “I only ever viewed you as someone who was brave, smart, passionate—
and yeah, maybe a little unpredictable with your emotions, but so am I; that’s what makes me get
you. And even still, I never once saw your reactions as something to be dealt with.”
Tango blinked back tears. He couldn’t really be meaning all this, could he?
“To me, that was always the real trust exercise.”
“What do you mean?”
“When you were on fire. I trusted you not to kill me. And you didn’t.”
Tango let out a sad laugh. “I wouldn’t exactly consider not killing you as praise worthy-“
“But it wasn’t just that.” Jimmy spoke up again. “You trusted me too, didn’t you?”
Tango stared at him, confused.
“From what you’ve told me, you’re practically hardwired to see everything as a threat in that state,
but that wasn’t the case with me.”
Jimmy took a step forward.
“Why not?”
Tango looked downward, his eyes shifting. “I- I don’t know?” He spoke, voice picking up a
slightly frantic pace.
”Maybe- maybe because killing you meant all this would end!”
Jimmy blinked. “‘ This…?’ ”
“You.” The blaze said firmly, gazing back up at his partner. “Us. Everything—I just couldn’t let
that happen. You weren’t a threat to me because when I’m around you, I- I feel safe—happy,
grounded, free… Like I could just be completely myself around you and you- you wouldn’t…”
Now, they were both blushing. Not that Tango was paying much attention to that.
He took in a deep breath, continuing. “You weren’t a threat to me because you’re kind, and
wonderful, and you understand me. You understand me so well it’s scary. And maybe I’m
completely wrong here, but I feel like I understand you too??”
He took his own step forward, both of Jimmy’s hands still in his.
“I trust you.” He breathed. “I trust you like I’ve never trusted anyone before.”
Jimmy grinned. “That you remember.” He joked, demonstrating the irony of Tango’s own words.
Tango thought he might have heard his voice tremble just a little. Was he nervous too?
“…It’s not just trust, though.” The blaze continued, heart practically beating out of his chest. “It’s
something more than that…” He looked to Jimmy nervously, unconsciously pulling him forward
the rest of the way. “God—tell me it’s not just me, please.” He begged. “If it is, then that’s okay—
I’ll- I’ll shut up about it.”
He felt the other’s hands tremble in his. Or maybe they were his own. He really couldn’t tell at that
point, nor did he care.
“But I have to know, Jimmy.” Tango spoke desperately. “I just have to- “
The distance between them closed.
Tango paused, his hand gripping the edge of his seat. “I- I think I’m just gonna leave it there for
now.” He said, eyes refusing to look directly at Scott.
Scott seemed a lot less agitated than he’d thought he’d be. Though that could just as easily have
been him hiding his true emotions. “Aw.” He said sarcastically. “But you were just getting to the
good part.”
Tango groaned in embarrassment as he rubbed his head in his hands.
Scott sighed. “If you’re worried about how I’ll react-“
“It’s not that.” He said, cutting him off.
“Oh really?”
“…Okay, maybe its some parts that.” Tango admitted. “But I also don’t want to tell you anything
that Jimmy might not be comfortable with you knowing. And so far, you’ve just told me what you
called him and what the- erm…” He blushed at the words, the tension in the air so thick it was hard
to breathe.
“What the poppies mean to you both.”
Hearing that bit in particular had definitely destroyed a small piece of him. It had been close to
midnight, and Scott had just finished his retelling when Tango suddenly connected the dots.
Fucking hell. He’d given Jimmy an entire bouquet of those when he’d visited him not too long ago.
He’d once hated Scott for making Jimmy cry, but who knows just how many times he’d done that
same thing himself by now? The thought made Tango want to break down completely.
But he couldn’t do that in front of Scott. Not when such an obvious reaction could give away
something regarding how Jimmy still felt about him.
“Well,” Scott replied. “you know about how we built our starter bases in Third Life together too.”
Tango leaned back in his seat. “Only because Jimmy told me that.” He retorted. “Not you-“
Suddenly, without warning, Scott slumped down in his chair, throwing his head in his hands as he
let out a shaky, downright exhausted sigh.
Immediately, Tango was sitting back up. “Scott?”
When he received no response, he got up to walk around the table, squatting down to the other’s
level as he hesitantly placed a hand to his back.
“Hey…”
“You kissed him after that, didn’t you?” Scott whispered, his words muffled, but still
comprehensible. “That’s why you’re hesitating to tell me the rest, right?”
Tango stayed silent.
It looked like Scott really was holding everything in. He really hated being right.
“I told you, Tango.” He spoke clearly this time, running his hands down his face in an attempt to
pull himself together. “I can handle you telling me-“
“He kissed me.” Tango admitted. And the look on Scott’s face made him regret it instantly.
The blaze shook his head. “This was a bad idea-“

“No.” Scott said, standing up suddenly. Tango got up with him. “From what you’ve told me—how
he spoke to you as if opening up around you were the easiest thing in the world, all the ways he
reacted when you were happy, how he comforted you when you were upset… it’s identical.” He
said, sounding somewhat terrified at his own conclusion. “Not a single thing you told me seemed
out of place from how Jimmy treated me, how he would act around me during Third life, or even
after that, when we’d made it official. He-“
He cut himself off, taking in a deep breath.
“—And I called him delusional…”
“Scott. Look at me.” The blaze spoke again, though Scott refused to fully meet his gaze. “We’ve
both made some really messed up assumptions about each other-“
“But he was my partner! I shouldn’t have assumed anything; I should have already known better!”
Scott raised his voice in frustration. “I was terrible to him. Everything I said…”
He peered back over to Tango suddenly, a confused look in his eyes. “Why aren’t you agreeing
with me??”
“Scott-“
“A few days ago, you would have agreed with me!” Scott insisted.
“A few days ago, I thought I’d never understand in my lifetime what it was Jimmy even loved
about you!” Tango blurted out.
They both froze.
Tango blushed slightly. Shit. That sentence wasn’t suppose to come out sounding nearly that
romantic.
“So make me understand.” He quickly added, trying to correct himself. “And you’re right, it
doesn’t have to be now, but whenever you wanna talk, whatever you feel like I need to know, even
if all you want to do is yell at me, I’m here to listen to all of it.”
He took a step forward.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
Scott just continued staring. The blaze started to worry that he’d said the wrong thing.
“—Unless you want me to go.” Tango continued. “Obviously.”
The other crossed his arms over his chest, his gaze falling to the floor.
“Why would I want you to go?” He spoke softly, now blushing as well. “I said I liked you, didn’t
I?”
Tango’s eyes widened.
He had said that, hadn’t he?
“Fuck-“ Scott cut himself off. “that was really stupid-“
“No, it’s fine.” Tango insisted, holding a hand up reassuringly.
“…I like you too.”
Both of them stood there, saying nothing more.
This was a lot to process. On one hand, they’d somehow managed to make things even more
awkward between them without even saying anything negative. But on the other hand…
Scott actually liked him.
Tango watched a sudden ray of light flash onto the side of the other’s face. He turned around,
discovering that the source of the light was coming from the windows outside.
“Is- is that the sun-?” Scott said, looking out the same window.
Tango suddenly realized just how many hours they’d been talking for and felt the urge to slap
himself. “Oh you’ve gotta be kidding me-!”
Scot threw his head back and groaned, likely also realizing that this wasn’t even the first time
they’d kept each other up like this. “Again??”
Admittedly, neither of them seemed all that tired, but Tango was well aware that the feeling would
still be bound to hit them at some point in the day. Knowing this, he walked over to one of the
chests and began digging around in it in an attempt to find something caffeinated. “Alright.” He
voiced, quick to pull out some plants. “You’ve swayed me. This was all your idea anyway, so if
you wanna call it quits for now, that’s fine with me.”
Scott wasn’t quick to respond, but when he did, it was in a low “Thank you.”
Tango walked over to a furnace, to throw a small handful of coal in. “Well, as I said, it was your
idea-“
“—for telling me all that.” Scott finished. Tango stopped what he was doing, turning back around
to look at the other.
“You didn’t need to tell me anything, but you did. So, thanks.”
Tango blinked at him, his mouth forming a flat line. “You too…”
Hesitantly, he went back to what he was doing, putting a pot of water on the furnace to boil.
“Okay,” The blaze spoke up again after they’d both settled back down at the table with their tea
and a very early breakfast. “so since clearly neither of us plan on sleeping again, I thought maybe
we could try building something today?”
Scott looked up from his drink. “Hm?”
“I mean, all we really have on our agenda is to take Pearl’s team to the enchanter and we actually
have a lot of supplies thanks to all the trades we’ve been doing.” Tango shrugged, taking a bite of
his food. “Plus it seems like everyone else has been building cool stuff. Feels kinda weird how
we’ve mostly just been hanging around.”
“We’ve mostly just been killing people and starting fights, actually.”
“Exactly.”
They both laughed a little. Mainly at their own recklessness.
“How about we do something with that area?” Tango perked, pointing a finger out the window to
the backyard. “You set up a fence around it, but you never put anything in it.”
Scott paused. “I put flowers there at one point…”
Tango frowned.
“Briefly.” The other continued. He still seemed hesitant, as if lost in thought. The blaze recognized
his expressions almost immediately and was about to tell him that they didn’t have to build
anything if he wasn’t up for it, before Scott spoke again.
“Let’s put a garden there.” He said, tone suspiciously neutral.
Tango nearly choked on his food. “A-? Whoa—wait a second-“ He said, waving his hands. “Why
that specifically?”
Scott shrugged. “It’s what I intended to put there before. Why not continue where I left off?”
Neither said anything for a moment. Despite the silence, however, about a hundred little alarms
were going off inside the blaze’s head at the idea of Scott building anything flower-related, let
alone a garden of all things.
“Flowers do remind me of him.” Scott continued, as if having read Tango’s mind. He looked
away, resting the side of his head on one of his hands. “But they’re also a part of me.” He argued.
“I really like pretty things, cute things… it’s just who I am.”
Tango listened to the other’s words curiously.
“My feelings for him never stopped me from building what I wanted on other servers. So why
should that be the case here?”
Tango thought on that for a second. They’d both made some pretty good headway in sharing
anything that might make them uncomfortable. As far as Tango knew, it’d be best to avoid gifting
any kind of flower to Scott, especially poppies. Red flowers in general were also something to be
avoided. But even so, at the very least, it’d be fairly unlikely for him to have the same kind of spur-
of-the-moment reaction he did last night, given that that one came about more so from being
caught off guard rather than any kind of logical anger. Really, if he just remembered that, which he
would, then everything should be fine.
Hopefully.
“If that’s really what you wanna do…” Tango responded hesitantly. Of course, in addition to
everything he now knew about Scott, he was also not keen on forgetting that, whether intentional
or not, he was still the cause of all of these emotional problems the man was experiencing in the
first place.
Tango gripped his mug, looking down into the murky water as some meager attempt at avoiding
eye contact. “If you don’t want my help on this one, I get it.” He said bluntly. “I can just go find
something else to do-“
“What you can find…” Scott quickly said, making Tango turn his head up.
“Are some yellow flowers.”
They were both looking at each other now. Scott’s face held a calm smile. “Think I’m gonna get
started on a gazebo over there. Maybe add a cute cobble trail leading up to it from the back door?”
He spoke so casually, as if what happened between them last night was already something he
intended to put behind them.
Tango gave the other a small nod, smiling. “Okay.” He replied, lifting his mug up to down the rest
of his drink. “Let’s get to work then.”
Chapter End Notes
Alright, so for clarity’s sake and in case I left anything out this chapter, Scott has been
told almost all the details of every flashback to Double Life in this story that Tango
has had up till now. But that doesn’t mean that Tango explained it to him word-for-
word like we’ve read it here. There may have been some things he explained
differently or left out when talking to Scott. As for what those particular details are, we
shall find those out eventually :)
Over and Over Again
Chapter Summary
Scott and Tango get to work on a new build. Impulse does something very
unexpected.
Chapter Notes
Sending Tango off to go collect dark oak wood and flowers was a pretty good idea. That way, he
didn’t have to be there when he broke down again.
It still felt weird wanting to spend time with Tango. It felt weird liking him, caring about him,
wondering if he was okay while they were apart, or if he was secretly hurting in some way while
they were together, all while still fully acknowledging what he did. And over the past few days,
especially after last night, those feelings towards his teammate never ceased to diminish, only grow
and blossom and change his whole perspective on the guy. On Jimmy too.
Was this what Jimmy had wanted? If he had bothered to stick around after Double Life and hear
him out, was this what he’d have told him? How he and Tango were able to understand each other
on a deeply emotional level straight away? How they listened to each other and considered the
other’s feelings instead of casually writing them off or fearing them like everyone else seemed to
do? How they trusted each other enough to risk everything?
How before anything else, Tango was Jimmy’s friend, just like he had been?
Scott sat in the grass outside their base, curled up in a ball with his back rested against the side of
the fence. He was quiet, still, simply thinking everything over with the short amount of time he
had.
“You can’t love him. You’ve only known him a week. You can’t just fall that deeply for someone in
such a short span of time.”
“But… I did with you.”

Someone should just stab him through the heart right now. It would be less painful than putting
himself through this again. Although, this was progress for him. At least now he was actually
confronting his thoughts regularly instead of distracting himself by working till he was beyond
exhausted. Though now he supposed that for today, he’d have to do both regardless. Tango of
course, didn’t seem as though he was about to force him to sleep any time soon like he did last time
as per the promise he’d made not to do that for the next few nights. Only now, Scott was kind of
wishing they hadn’t made such an agreement. He even felt bad that his bad habits seemed to be
rubbing off on the other as well.
And just like that, Scott’s mind was on both of them, his concerns expanding on to the two
seamlessly as if it were the most natural thing ever. Was Tango okay? Was Jimmy going to be?
What about all of them? What happens after this game ends? What comes after??
Scott let out a small whine and finally moved to stand up. He’s not doing this right now. He’d
acknowledged his thoughts plenty while him and Tango were talking. He’d taken his mandatory
baby steps and he’d done more than enough thinking for the time being.
Scott let out a deep exhale and got to work right away on digging out a path to put stone in. He
wasn’t lying; he did feel up for building a garden. It was simple, easy, and was similar to what he’d
been doing on empires a lot of the time in general. It was funny, really. He started hating the sight
of poppies because they reminded him of Jimmy, so he fitted his next empire to be centered around
the production of dye. He’d hardly been speaking to Jimmy on their server for fear of finally
snapping and begging him to choose him over Tango, so he decided to join in on yet another Life
game as an excuse to interact with him somehow. Was he just going insane? did he just like
torturing himself??
Scott stopped his digging momentarily. his shovel had broken at the hilt, a loud snapping noise
quickly grabbing his attention as he watched the shovel vanish a second later. There had to have
been at least a hundred more digs left in that tool the the last time he’d pulled it out. Had he just
been manhandling it that terribly and not noticed?
Scott groaned in frustration, pulling out another one and starting back where he left off, this time,
paying more attention to how roughly he was digging. It wasn’t long before the new trail was a
finished completely. Afterwards, Scott went straight to working on the gazebo, constructing the
deck part of it with oak planks while leaving the roof part unfinished for the time being until
Tango came back with the materials for it. He had to admit, this was all looking quite well. The
trail had been filled with a scattered array of cobble and stone bricks, while the beginnings of the
gazebo build included a small staircase up to the platform, which was lit up by lanterns.
Only thing missing now, were the flowers. And, of course, whatever it was that Tango might want
to build, if anything.
Scott took a minute to sit down again on the stairs he’d made. It was a nice day out, as he was just
now realizing. it was still early enough in the morning for there to be specs of dewdrops in the
grass. At this, he started thinking about Tango again. God, he was always on his mind no matter
what, wasn’t he? Didn’t he say at one point that he hated the rain? Well, then it was a good thing
this world was modified so that it never rained. Less helpful, however, considering how often
people’s builds would get set on fire…
Scott was once again pulled from his thoughts when he heard his comm go off. Normally, he
wouldn’t feel so inclined to check it. What were the odds of it being a death message this early in
the morning? Still, he didn’t have much else to do as he waited for Tango. And so, he picked it up,
casually hitting the ‘on’ button.
ImpulseSV fell from a high place
InTheLittleWood died
What? Well, color him surprised. It had been a while since he’d seen Impulse’s name pop up in
chat, not that he was actively looking or anything. He could care less what that jerk had going on in
his life right now.
Scott put the device down, sighing. He supposed a death like that did make sense. Impulse and his
team lived in such a tall building. A death by fall damage was about the least surprising thing that
could have happened to any of them. However, this did mean that Martyn was on red now. That
may cause problems for them, but out of everyone, Scott supposed he’d be one of the last people to
have it out for him or Tango specifically, hopefully.
Scott’s comm pinged again.
His eyes shot open as he reached for the device and turned it back on, much quicker this time.
Inthelittlewood died
Wait—what??
Okay, now Impulse did have his attention. Martyn had been a red life for no more than three
minutes and now he was just… out of the game? For good?? If these were somehow both
accidents, then it seemed as though Martyn had Jimmy-levels of bad luck this session. Come to
think of it, he was now the second one out of the game.
All in three minutes…
“Scott!”
Scott whipped his head around to see a frantic-looking Tango running towards him while waving
his comm up in the air. He must have just been on his way back.
“Oh my god—“ He exclaimed. “Scott have you checked your-“
“I have.” Scott replied just as the other came up to him, panting heavily. Both of their eyes were
now fixed on his own comm, the two of them waiting with bated breath for yet another death
message to pop up.
“What is going on…?” Scott muttered somewhat to himself.
Tango shook his head. “If he phantom dies again I swear to god-“
The screen flashed.
RenTheDog died
“No way-!” The blaze yelled at the same time Scott exclaimed “He’s doing this on purpose??”
Then, they were right back to what they were doing, staring and waiting for a fourth message to
appear. People in the chat were going bezerk. The messages were moving at a rate so quickly Scott
feared it would be hard to tell if and when another death message did pop up among them.
<bigbst4tz2> Dude! Stop! What are you doing??
<Etho> Isn’t this against the rules or something?
<Grian> Oh god
<Grian> Not technically. No.
<ZombieCleo> What is going on right now??
<PearlescentMoon> Is anyone near the Skyscraper? Anyone??
Then, a short and concerning series of messages from Bdubs caught his attention across the sea of
frantic voices.
<BdoubleO100> Impulse
<BdoubleO100> It’s going to be okay
<BdoubleO100> Just wait for me
<BdoubleO100> Please
“Scott?” Tango whispered after seeming to have read the same lines of text.
“Yes?”
They met each other’s eyes again momentarily. Tango looked eerily terrified in that moment.
“When you went to the Skyscraper yesterday, did Impulse seem… off to you?”
Scott’s entire body went still. His eyes now ignoring the ongoing messages.
He was not expecting his teammate to ask him such a specific question. Though he supposed he
should have. Impulse was currently pulling off what Scott had been itching to do the entire first
half of the game. Clearly, something had to be going on with him if he were to want to leave all of
a sudden. Or perhaps his teammates had just done something that pissed him off? Either way, his
actions certainly raised more than their fair share of questions. But even so, he wasn’t about to tell
Tango what exactly Impulse had said to him during his visit, or what it was that he said back, for
that matter.
So, Scott simply shook his head, trying to maintain as neutral an expression as possible. “I don’t
know.” He answered. “He wasn’t exactly happy. I can tell you that much.”
At least that part wasn’t a lie, for as widely as the description ‘not happy’ stretched.
Tango opened his mouth, looking as though he were about to ask for details, before their comms
pinged again.
Renthedog died
This was insane. Which was a bit hypocritical of Scott to think, but still. Was he just going to keep
going until he’d killed both of his teammates? All three of them even? Would an entire team
actually be wiped from the game completely in the time it took for someone to brew up a cup of
tea??
They continued waiting, staring at the screen anxiously. Scott couldn’t tell how much time had
passed. Three minutes? Four? All he did know was that the final death for Ren had to be coming
soon. Any minute now, it would happen, and then, Impulse might even move on to himself.
Any minute now…
But nothing showed up. Even after a solid ten minutes—at which point him and Tango had moved
to sit down—no other death messages appeared.
“I think… I think he’s stopped now.” Tango whispered.
Scott let out the breath he’d been holding. “Thank god…”
Suddenly, the other stood up, that terrified look in his eyes having never left. “I need to talk to
him.” He said, and Scott’s eyes immediately widened at the notion.
“No.” He spoke, hearing the words leave his lips before he could fully process what he was saying.
All he knew, was that he couldn’t let Impulse suck up any more of Tango’s energy than he already
had.
Tango looked at him, confused. “No?”
Scott stood up to meet him at eye level, more unexpected words now shooting from his mouth at a
much louder and surprising volume.
“He’s no good for you, Tango!”
The confusion the other seemed to be depicting was now magnified tenfold. Scott bit down on his
tongue. Why the hell had he just said that? And why did what he said have to come out sounding
as though he were asking Tango to leave Impulse in exchange for him??
Calmly, he tried to add a little more context to his statement. “He’s been so deep in your head ever
since we first attacked his teammates. The only thing that thinking about him has done for you is
stress you out.”
Thankfully, Tango’s surprised gaze softened at this. “Which is why I need to confront him now.”
The blaze argued. he crossed his arms over his chest, looking to the ground in frustration. “A few
days ago, Etho told me that avoiding him now was only justifying his expectations and honestly, I
think he’s right. Maybe he did need some space in the beginning, but as of right now, I see no
reason why I should keep at this for any longer than I already have.”
Scott stared at him blankly.
Shit.
If he tried to talk to Impulse after everything that got thrown between them when he last went to the
tower, things could most definitely get very messy. Would Impulse take the anger that he now
harbors for him out on Tango? Would he tell him what happened, revealing to him that he’d been
lying to him since then? Scott had no clue, but he did know that he was not ready to confront
another problem with Impulse again.
Or at the very least, he wasn’t ready to let Tango face it alone.
“Give it a day.” Scott spoke, his tone firm.
Tango sighed. “Scott-“
“Give it just one more day.” He repeated. “Then, you can go see him… and I’ll come with you
when you do.”
Tango looked back up at him. That offer seemed to get his attention. Though Scott was still unable
to read his exact attitude towards the whole idea.
“Unless… you don’t want that-“
“No-“ Tango spoke, quickly reassuring him. “I do want that. That- that would make me a lot more
comfortable, actually.”
Scott let out a small sigh of relief. He was considering it. Good. But there was still that unspoken
concern hanging in the air. Did they even have an additional day to wait for? Would Impulse just
go right back to killing himself any minute now? Possibly. But Scott still said nothing on it.
Tango raised an eyebrow, continuing. “But why do you even care this much?”
Scott eyed him somewhat stiffly, the first response that came to mind echoing in his head.
Because I care about you.
“Well, there’s always still the chance of him trying to kill you. Or Ren, even. Especially now that
he’s red.” Was thankfully, what he actually answered with.
“Oh.” Tango replied, his gaze shifting down again. “Right.”
Scott’s heart sunk a little at that reaction. Of course Tango would assume that he just didn’t want to
take the fall for his phantom death. It’s literally what he’d been telling him since the day after
Jimmy died.
“—But… I also wouldn’t forgive myself if I just left you alone to do this.” He added in a weak
attempt to show that he really did care about Tango as a person, at least a little.
His teammate blinked. “Why’s that?”
Because then he would probably find out that he left Impulse out of the enchanting deal
intentionally. And if the guy had any extra anger directed at Tango, it would probably be because
he chose to aggravate him earlier.
But no. That wasn’t all.
“Because I’m kind of the whole reason he’s mad at you in the first place, remember?” Scott
replied, gripping the sides of his shirt.
Tango only scoffed at that. “I told you, I’m glad you did what you did. And I never pinned any part
of that event on you.” He took a step forward, gesturing to himself. “I’m the one who never
explained myself.”
Scott grit his teeth. “But that shouldn’t have mattered.” He argued back. “All I should have needed
to know was that interacting with him made you deeply uncomfortable. You didn’t owe me any
more of an explanation than that.”
He stared at the other, recalling exactly what he’d mentioned Jimmy saying to him at one point
when he was recounting the events of Double Life last night.
“I mean it. You don’t owe that to anyone.”
Was it a stupid thing to say in the moment? Probably. But he truly did believe it. At least, now he
did.
How strange that Tango was able to change something about him like that….
Once again, Tango seemed surprised. He stared for a second, looking as though he were about to
retaliate once more, but instead, he spoke calmly. “Okay.” He said, the single word being more
than enough affirmation to make Scott relax. “One more day. Then, we’ll do this together.”
Scott nodded lightly. “Of course.”
Oh thank god. He’d bought himself at least one more day to figure out how he was suppose to deal
with the ‘Impulse’ situation. That was at least something good that came of this. But still,
temporarily setting aside the fact that this would have killed Ren for good, Scott couldn’t help but
wish that Impulse had fully managed to get the job done. Seriously, all that and he was still on
yellow? It was just plain unfair.
“That design looks amazing, by the way.” Tango said suddenly. Scott turned to see that his
teammate was now looking up at the gazebo he’d made, still admiring it despite its lack of
completion.
He smiled, walking over to where he now stood.

“You wanna help me build the roof?”
Things were calmer from there. No arguments that made Scott question his morals; no more
sudden death messages sounding off, it was just peaceful, as things should be.
The flowers that Tango had found were beautiful. Scott had to admit that he had good taste. Tango
still seemed hesitant to perform certain actions with them such as handing them over to him, but
Scott was always quick to reassure him that his past reaction was a one time thing and that it really
wouldn’t happen again.
They talked a lot while planting them. As seemed to always be the case with Tango, they just never
seemed to run out of things to talk about. As was also common, most of what they did bring up
normally revolved around Jimmy. What was different this time, was that he didn’t seem nearly as
taboo a subject as he had been during the first few day after his death. If anything, talking about
him with Tango now made him feel positive and upbeat rather than irritated and awkward. Scott
learned that Jimmy had once built a replica of the Ranch they had from Double Life, placing it in
Tumble Town so that Tango would always have a place to stay when he was on Empires. Scott
brought up the date they once went on back on the first Empires world where he’d designed an
entire underground cave as a setting for a picnic. A big surprise to Scott came when he realized
that neither of them were trying to show-up each other at all when recounting these events. To that
extent, his first emotion when hearing Tango’s story wasn’t jealousy, but rather a tender fondness
for Jimmy.
That’s not to say however that Scott still wasn’t jealous. But the feeling had weakened greatly
lately. Or rather, it had been replaced by a more apparent feeling of sadness, longing, regret… but
not loneliness. Never loneliness. Not when he was with Tango.
“I just had an idea.” Tango said as he was in the middle of planting a batch of purple flowers.
“What if we added a fish pond?”
Scott’s eyes widened. He hadn’t even thought of that. “That would literally be the cutest thing
ever.” He said in an overly-sincere tone, making the other let out a small laugh. “Where are we
gonna get fish though?”
Tango hummed, pulling out his comm to look at the screen. “Well, according to Cleo, we’re
meeting back up at Pearl’s base in like, half an hour. So maybe after she shows us where the farm
is and we’re done taking her team to the portal by the lighthouse, we can just see if there’s any fish
by the sea area afterwards?”
Scott nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”
They were practically done with the garden by this point. Scott had to admit, for a build they’d
gone into with almost zero planning, it did look pretty good.
“Think it needs just one more thing for now.” He said, making a motion to summon something
new from his inventory. A light flashed in his hands and Scott watched as Tango’s expression went
from calm to panicked in two seconds flat as the item began to take shape.
“Woah- wait- what are you-?” The blaze stuttered, eyes now fixed on the bouquet he’d given him
that Scott was now holding.
Scott gave the other a concerned look, glancing down at the flowers, and then back up at him.
“Oh.” He paused. “Are you not okay with me disassembling it?”
Tango blushed suddenly. “N-no. It’s yours.” He said, still choppy with his words. “I just
figured…”
Scott quickly figured out the problem and shook his head knowingly. “I wasn’t just saying things
when I told you I liked them. I really do think they’re pretty.”
Tango said nothing, still looking somewhat worried.
Scott sighed. He walked over to an empty plot closer to his teammate and proceeded to kneel down
by it, putting the other out of his frontal view completely. “Seeing them isn’t gonna make me run
off again. I told you this already.” He separated the majority of the flowers (quickly and silently
placing the poppies back in his inventory and out of sight), cut their stems shorter with some
shears, and placed them in a pre-dug pocket of dirt. “There.” Scott said, admiring the last of the
planted flowers. “That looks pretty, doesn’t it?”
Tango remained silent for a moment, until Scott finally heard him speak again, his reply having
come from directly behind him.
“Beautiful…”
Scott smiled. They certainly were.
“Well that’s just stupid!” Tango yelled, making an exasperated gesture with his hands.
“I know, right??” Scott agreed.
The blaze groaned. “If Martyn had just spoken to Bigb after the game—no! Even if he’d just
phrased his questions a little more specifically—they would have figured this out a long time ago!”
Scott held back the urge to laugh at the other’s theatrical reaction, as he’d been doing during nearly
their entire walk over to the village. Finally getting a proper chance to spill everything that
happened last night to Tango was like a breath of fresh air to him. Though Scott did, of course,
have to leave out the part about Martyn’s hearing abilities. While he did wonder if Jimmy had ever
brought it up with Tango, given how he was currently reacting to the story, it didn’t seem likely.
And Scott wasn’t about to break his promise to Jimmy over an unlikely assumption, even if it was
Tango he was talking to. Lying did make him feel a bit guilty, but still, at least this lie was
practically harmless…
“Truly ridiculous.” Scott agreed after catching his breath. “I’m glad they’re doing okay now, I
guess. Well, maybe not right now, actually, what with Martyn being dead and Ren being red…”
He then turned his head to Tango questioningly. “You think he’ll be much of a threat to us?”
Tango shrugged. “I doubt it. At least, not immediately. If we’re lucky, he might not even be a threat
to anyone. Man really did join the game just so he could trail Martyn some more.”
Tango flinched slightly as soon as that sentence had left his mouth.
“—At least- that’s what I assume.” He added, trying to write off those last few words. But Scott
had already made the unintentional connection. He too had joined this game mainly just to “trail”
Jimmy, after all.
But Scott paid that sentence no mind. Or at least, he tried to.

“Looks like we’re here.” Tango said, swiftly changing the topic as they approached the front of the
base near the village. Scott was quick to note the haphazard, and frankly bizzare-looking sets of
railway trailing all over the place, even above the trees and houses. However, what was weird was
that there weren’t any mine carts moving in them. Not a single one.
He turned to Tango, who seemed to be giving the structure the same confused stare. “What
happened to the…?”
Scott tilted his head. “The what?”
He saw the Tango’s mouth form a flat line before he shook his head. “Nothing.” He replied. “This
place just seemed so much more… alive the last time I was here.”
Before Scott could ask what that meant, they both heard the sound of footsteps approaching from
behind them.
Scott turned around to see Cleo. Just Cleo.
“Cleo.” He spoke. “Is it just you today?”
She simply nodded, her normally upbeat attitude absent to the point where it was concerning.
“Have you seen the chat?”
Tango frowned. “Of course we have. Any idea what the heck is going on over there?”
Cleo sighed. “I wish I did. All I know is that the moment the second death popped up, Bdubs made
a run for it in the direction of the Skyscraper. I’d never seen him bolt so fast before. He was
throwing enderpearls in front of him the whole time too, at least for as long as I could see him. If
anyone has any idea what’s going on, it’s probably him. But me and Etho have been trying to get a
hold of him ever since then and it’s been nothing but radio silence.”
Scott felt his stomach sink. Nothing about this felt right. “I’m guessing Etho still didn’t want to
show up?” He asked more or less rhetorically.
Another nod. “Although maybe it’s for the best this time. He’s actually out looking for Bdubs right
now. Last I heard from him, he was on his way to the Skyscraper himself.”
Scott bit his lip. “So much happened in such a small amount of time…”
“You could say that again.” Cleo replied. She then let out a sad laugh. “Least I won that huge
gamble I made on Martyn being one of the first to die this session, right?”
Scott observed his friend’s face once more. She didn’t seem very happy about that anymore.
“Hello.”
The three of them all jumped slightly, turning back to look at the front door to the base they’d yet
to knock on, which was now noticeably open with a tired-looking Pearl standing in the doorway.
“Welcome back.” She spoke again, her voice having also lost its cheeriness.
Scott had nearly forgotten that Imulse was a close friend of her’s. He wondered if her shift in
attitude had anything to do with the concern she was probably feeling for him after this morning, or
from whatever seemed to have happened to the village that made Tango appear so unsettled, or
maybe both.
Feeling as though it would be intrusive to ask any of those questions right off the bat, Scott kept his
mouth shut for the time being. Him, Tango, and Cleo watched as Pearl stepped out the door with
Lizzie following behind her.
Scott was about to ask where Joel was, when the man suddenly emerged from around the corner of
the house, having apparently already been outside.
Pearl skipped any pleasantries she might have said otherwise. That inaction having also been very
off putting. “So,” She spoke. “we’re still showing you the mob farm location first, right-?”
“Uh- actually…” Joel said, speaking up hesitantly. Everyone turned to look at him. He seemed
anxious, as he usually did these days, but also nervous, as if he were hiding from someone, or in a
hurry to go somewhere, his frantic eyes looking off in every direction as he palmed the comm he
was carrying in his pocket. “I- I think I gotta sit this one out.” He finished.
Lizzie approached him, tilting her head in confusion. “Joel?”
“What’s all this here?” Pearl asked sternly. “Two minutes ago you were completely on board with
going. You were literally just throwing your boots on a second ago, same as me and Lizzie.
Joel visibly swallowed. “Yes… well- I think I just came down with something—I don’t know. I’m
just feeling really dizzy right now-“
“Hell, you were the reason we put this off till today!” Pearl seethed. She did not seem amused at
all.
“You can still take my spare weapons with you!” Joel said back, now looking to the three of them.
“I just- I feel like I’m gonna be sick-“
Once again, Pearl didn’t seem to be having it. For some reason, Scott couldn’t help but feel as
though her bad attitude was stemming more so from just recent events. In that moment, it seemed
as though her anger were directed at Joel specifically and had been for a while. “Would you cut the
crap already? You’re fine-“
“It’s okay.” Lizzie interjected calmly. She held a hand up to the side of her husband’s face,
cupping it gently as they both stared into each other’s eyes.
“Give me your spares.” She said after a moment of assessing him. “I have more than enough levels
to enchant both of our stuff.”
Joel only looked at her, sad and apologetic as he handed over a few of his items. “I’m sorry…”
“Go lie down, Joel.” Lizzie finished, giving him a sympathetic smile. She then walked back to the
group and headed past them all towards the back of the village.
“But-“ Pearl started.
“This way, guys.” Lizzie continued.
And what could the rest of them do other than follow?
Chapter End Notes
The second death. Finally. Lots of vagueness in this chapter which I promise will be
explained later, but if anyone does have any questions on what the heck is going on,
please do ask!
—
Scott - Green
Jimmy - X
Tango - Yellow
Cleo - Green
Bdubs - Yellow
Etho - Green
Grian - Green
Scar - Yellow
Bigb - Red
Ren - Red
Martyn - X
Impulse - Yellow
Pearl - Yellow
Joel - Green
Lizzie - Yellow
The Truth
Chapter Summary
Tango, Scott, and Cleo lead Pearl and Lizzie to the enchanter. Something unexpected
happens along the way. Etho has a quick word with Lizzie.
Chapter Notes
What’s this? An early chapter?? Well I never…
Will still have a new chapter come out sometime over the weekend like usual, just fyi
:)
The walk to the mob farm was eerily quiet for the most part. Tango had seen Scott speak a few
words to Pearl, of course, as it had only been the second time they’d seen each other all session.
But other than that, it was silent.
Pearl and her team hadn’t hidden the farm anywhere particularly special. They’d just dug out a
random area underground below a cave that hosted a simple drop-down style mob farm made of
cobblestone. That being said, it was still nothing to sneeze at. The structure was large and
definitely capable of generating dozens of mobs at a time. What really made it convenient, was that
it doubled as an xp grinder, so it made sense as to why Lizzie probably did have enough levels to
enchant two different sets of weapons.
“As you can see,” Pearl said, slicing her sword through a creeper’s legs as it stood trapped in its
stone cage. “the farm is perfectly functional.” Tango watched as bright wisps of glowing xp circled
around her before absorbing themselves into her skin. “You’re free to come here whenever you
like.”
He hadn’t been paying too much attention to anything Pearl said after that. He was too occupied
with Lizzie, and how she still somehow looked a mix of both tired and devastated. Tango wanted to
speak to her again. To Pearl too. But while Pearl didn’t seem to be in any of a better mood than
Lizzie, at least her emotions appeared to stem more from frustration rather than sadness, meaning
that it probably no longer had anything to do with her blaming herself for somewhat indirectly
killing Jimmy like she had before. Unfortunately, under these circumstances, it’s not as though he
could get any time alone with either of them. At least, not without Scott possibly overhearing
something.
“Feels like I haven’t seen you in forever.”
Tango turned his head to look behind him slightly. Looks like Scott beat him to it anyway. He was
currently walking farther behind them all as he chatted with Lizzie. Out of curiosity, Tango tried to
listen in.
“Yeah, same here.” Lizzie replied.
“So, we both know Joel’s not actually sick or anything, right?”
He heard Lizzie let out a faint sigh. Neither of them spoke for a moment after that question.
“Is there anything you want to talk to me about?” Scott continued after a while. “I’m always here
to listen.”
Another pause.
“Well…”
“Pst-“
Tango jolted, he looked to his side, eyes landing on Cleo, who was way closer to him than she was
a few seconds ago.
“What?” Tango asked, somewhat annoyed.
Cleo rolled her eyes and then, without warning, produced a stack of diamonds which she handed
over to him. When Tango looked at it in his inventory, he realized that there were twenty in total.
“This is yours and Scott’s share from last night.”

Tango did a double take. “What the-??”
“Yup.” Cleo grinned, still speaking in somewhat of a low volume. “It’s kinda funny, actually. They
both seemed to be in such a good mood after their little resolution that they just didn’t seem to care
about the game anymore.” She laughed. “Scott did tell you about all that, yeah?”
“Yeah.” Tango nodded. “He did.”
“We all did some talking after that whole event. Cleo continued. “What’s even stranger is that their
sour mood from beforehand wasn’t entirely due to the tension they’d been having with each other.”
“Really?”
“Mhm.” Cleo hummed. “According to Ren, some maniac set their front lawn on fire for no
apparent reason. He told me that by the time he’d smelled smoke and noticed it, the flames had
spread so widely they ended up burning all of their wheat and half of the garden he’d made.”
Tango’s eyes went wide. “That’s insane.”
“Cleo looked behind them both for a second; Tango followed where her eyes went. Scott and
Lizzie appeared to still be talking while Pearl was following the group from farther off to the side.
She turned back around. “You know what else is insane?” She spoke, now even quieter. “You and
Scott.”
Tango raised an eyebrow at her.
“I don’t know if it’s what Impulse attempted this morning that got me thinking about it again, but
I’m just so curious to know. What did you say to him to make him not wanna off himself? And to
that end, when did he even start liking you so much??”
Tango almost tripped on his own feet, but was quick to steady himself again. No one seemed to
pay his momentary fumble any mind other than Cleo, who had a shit-eating grin on her face.
“What do you even mean by that??” Tango whispered back at her.
Cleo kicked a rock as they both continued walking. “I can believe it the other way around with you.
I mean, you clearly get all dazed and surprised whenever someone brings him up. Not to mention
you also talk about him all the time when he’s not here. But with Scott? How??”
Tango frowned. Cleo had every right to assume that Scott was less likely to want to make amends
with him when comparing the things they’d done to each other. What Scott did was hurtful. What
he did was unforgivable.
“You’re saying what I did isn’t easy to forgive.” Tango muttered sadly.
Cleo seemed surprised at this reply. “Tango-“
“It’s alright. I already know that.”
The other sighed. “I’m saying, I don’t know what you two argued about last night, but I’ve never
seen him so torn up from guilt over something he did to you.”
Tango blinked. Something he did to him?
Then, he realized what his friend was talking about. Had Scott really felt that guilty over his
reaction to the flowers? He shouldn’t have. He had no reason to be!
The blaze felt his stomach churn. He just kept on finding new ways to hurt Scott, didn’t he?
“Oh. That.” He replied stalely. He might have been more surprised by his next words had this not
been something he’d been dwelling on ever since the poppy incident—no, ever since Jimmy died.
It was all he wanted. Just to make things right.
Tango folded his arms, and frowned. “I just wish… I could make them both happy.”
He didn’t expect Cleo to understand a lick of what he really meant by that. And that was fine. It
would make no difference whether or not anyone could understand him. There’d still be no
resolution to this situation regardless.
“I understand.” Cleo spoke quietly, surprising the blaze only in the slightest.
Well, maybe she did understand. But as he’d come to understand himself, it still made no
difference. Maybe Cleo knew that as well, because they both spent the rest of their walk in silence
after that.
“Okay.” Cleo said as they all made their way through the nether portal. “Etho did give me the
coords to the new hiding spot before he left. Lemme just pull up the…”
Everyone watched the zombie hybrid awkwardly as she fumbled around with her inventory.
“Nope, not that.” She said, closing a leather-bound book she’d summoned before vanishing it
again. She then summoned an enchanted book, but was quick to turn that away as well. “Not that
either…”
Just as Tango was about to ask her if she was sure Etho had given her the right thing, she
manifested a small scrap of paper in her hands and scanned it over briefly. “Oh- okay!” She spoke
cheerily, waving the paper around. “Found it—“
Cleo vanished before she could fully finish what she was saying.
“What the hell??” Tango yelled out of shock, watching everything Cleo had had on her—including
the scrap of paper—fall to the ground. Looking over the many item’s she’d dropped, he came to
the swift conclusion that, yeah, she really did have a messy inventory.
Everyone was quick to check their comms after that.

Etho was blown up by Creeper
ZombieCleo died
“Huh.” Lizzie said bluntly. “I wonder how that went down.”
Tango really couldn’t tell if her lack of emotion was just a continued reflection of how she’d been
feeling that day, or if she was masking joy at the thought of Etho getting blown up. He knew she’d
told him that she hadn’t resented Etho for what had happened during Double Life, but he still
figured that either was possible.
A few minutes and some quick messages sent between Scott and Cleo later and they now had a
new plan.
“She says we can get a head start without her while she’s making her way back.” Scott voiced,
putting his comm away and bending down to grab the slip of paper and everything else that Cleo
had dropped.
“Sounds good. I guess.” Pearl replied indifferently.
Not too much longer, and they were exactly where they needed to be. Scott crafted a new lever and
surprisingly, was able to attach it to the right spot on the hill of netherrack on his first try.
“I swear to god, Grian had better not be on the other side of this.” He muttered. Tango cracked a
small grin at that.
The doors opened. Thankfully, no one was there.
“Okay. Good.” Scott sighed in relief.
From there, they simply got to work. Everyone was able to get the enchantments that they needed.
While waiting for Pearl to finish, Tango kept noticing Lizzie’s eyes wandering over to where he
was standing. He figured they both must have been thinking the same things, but as he’d
considered previously, they were both too afraid to say anything when Scott and Pearl could be
listening. It was a complicated situation, to say the least. Everything just seemed so complicated
these days.
Regardless, the blaze still figured he’d at least try to talk to her while she was here. Slowly, he
inched his way over to her while Pearl was still busy enchanting.
“Everything good?” He whispered inconspicuously.
Lizzie stayed stone-cold silent, with the acceptation of a sad look and a shake of the head.
Tango sighed. “What did he do this time?”
Lizzie bit her lip. “It’s more so what he didn’t do…” She whispered.
Just as Tango was about to ask for context, he heard Pearl speak up.
“All set then.” She said, putting away her lapis.
Tango cursed in his head. Guess there was nothing more to be said now.
Scott groaned, checking his comm. “You’d think Cleo would have been back by now.”
“Yeah.” Tango replied, dropping the previous subject and looking towards his teammate. “Wasn’t
her last spawn just her base?”
Scott shrugged “I guess it could have been somewhere else…”
Safe to say, for whatever reason, Cleo hadn’t bothered to reply to any of their messages after that.
No one knew for sure where she really ended up, though Tango was so certain that her last spawn
point would have had to have been the Lighthouse. It wasn’t that late into the day, after all. Where
else could she have gone before then?
Despite her silence, him and Scott had agreed to simply leave the table where it was for the time
being. Even if someone did take it, its not as though it would be that much of a loss to them at this
point now that everyone had enchanted with it.
The walk back was about as quiet as the last one, the unfortunate news of that morning still
looming over the group. Tango had never felt guiltier about anything in his life than he did over
what his actions ended up doing to Scott, but the guilt of not knowing what it was that got Impulse
acting the way he did all of a sudden certainly didn’t feel good either.
Eventually, they made it back to the portal that exited out to the Lighthouse. Upon stepping out and
seeing the familiar-looking beach and structures around them, Tango had surprisingly felt a bit
more positive. Scott said they could try catching some fish together for the garden once they were
done here. How could he not be at least a little excited over that?
“C’mon Liz.” He heard Pearl speak suddenly. She pulled at Lizzie’s arm, gently trying to tug her
along in the direction of their own base. She seemed more anxious to leave than any of them did.
“We’re good to go home now.”
Lizzie only rolled her eyes at her. “Don’t be rude.” She stated plainly. “We should at least see if
Cleo’s alright.”
Tango locked eyes with her again just as he was moving to knock on the door. “Mind if I get in
here?” Lizzie asked, walking up to him and Scott.
“Not at all.” Tango figured it was a small chance that Cleo was actually here. She still wasn’t
answering their messages, so it seemed unlikely that she had made her way back by now if she
really was that preoccupied with not dying on her way to the base. But still, it didn’t hurt to be sure.
Tango knocked on the door to the Lighthouse. “Cleo?” He asked, raising his voice slightly.
To all of their surprise, her voice answered back.
“A bit busy right now.” A muffled voice said after a short moment of silence.
Tango looked at Scott, who seemed to be eyeing him with equal confusion. Disregarding her
statement, Tango took it upon himself to open the door. Everyone else followed him inside, the
curiosity of the situation seeming to get the better of all of them.
Tango turned a corner and looked past where the staircase was on the first floor. “Well did you
need help-?”
He stopped dead in his tracks.
Cleo was sitting on a bed that appeared to have just been placed down. Her eyes widened as they
met with Tango’s, and then to the rest of the people in the group as they all made their way over to
him to see what he seemed so captivated by.
There, also sitting on the bed, with his face buried in her shoulder, was Etho.
He too seemed more than a little surprised when he pulled his own head up. He didn’t look okay.
Not by a long shot. Tango could clearly see the redness in his tired eyes that framed his still-green
pupils. Clearly, he’d just been crying for a good while. His mask was on, but his vest and boots
were off. Really, he just seemed to be completely done with everything. But at the same time, his
appearance still held a certain franticness to it.
He only appeared even more frantic the second his eyes met with Lizzie’s. They both stared at each
other, looking very unsure of what to say, if there was even anything to say.
“Etho…” Lizzie whispered, finally.
Etho looked as though he were about to say something himself, before Pearl bud in, repeating what
she had been trying to do just a minute or so ago and immediately clinging to Lizzie’s arm as she
tried to drag her away. This time, more forcefully.
“No.” Pearl said sternly.
They all knew exactly what she meant by ‘no’. It wasn’t as though Pearl and Etho were on bad
terms. She, like most others who participated in Double Life, did not hold any kind of resentment
for Etho over what he did with Joel while their memories were gone. But all the same, she knew
having him around Lizzie would likely only upset her more. And so, she pulled.
“Nonononono—we are not doing this right now. Thank you and goodbye.”
Lizzie didn’t exactly try to fight it. For the most part, she didn’t even seem to know what exactly
she wanted to do.
But Etho did.
They’d both gotten about halfway out the door before Etho quickly stood up and ran to them.
“Wait-“ He said calmly. Tango watched him summon a small item in the palm of his hand as he
made his way over to the door. Then, he did something even more unexpected. He took Lizzie’s
free hand in both of his and held it tenderly.
Pearl had stopped pulling momentarily. They both looked at each other again.
“ I’m sorry. ” Etho whispered. Then, he let the other’s hand slip back out of his own as Pearl
continued her determined retreat.
Tango wondered if Scott had also noticed the small piece of paper that Lizzie was now clinging on
to. He figured he’d ask him about it later.
The front door slammed shut, and just like that, Lizzie and Pearl were gone.
Etho stood there, as he was, his shoulders slumped and body lax.
Tango walked over to him, slowly putting a cautious hand to his friend’s shoulder. “You wanna tell
us what happened?”
Etho didn’t look at him. He didn’t look at any of them.
“I went to find Bdubs.” He spoke lifelessly.

They all held their breath, waiting for what he might say next.
“I ran into Joel.”
Oh no…
Tango noticed Cleo shove her head in her hands at this. It seemed like she was already aware of
this information on some level. Tango had the suspicion that if Cleo hadn’t stuck around at the
Lighthouse for long enough to still be there to comfort Etho when he arrived, the man might have
still been a crying mess by the time they came to open the door.
As for Etho, Tango hoped for both his and Lizzie’s sake that he really did just run into him instead
of actively trying to seek him out.
“I have no idea how,” Etho continued. “but somehow he knew I would be there.”
Tango’s eyes widened with realization, as did Scott and Cleo’s. He recalled what Joel had said
earlier when they were all getting ready to leave the village.
“I think I gotta sit this one out.”
He’d backed out right before they were about to leave.
“I just came down with something—I don’t know. I’m just feeling really dizzy right now-“
It was so obvious that his decision not to go with them was one made in the spur of the moment.
Not to mention, his claim of illness was clearly a cover for something else. But still, whatever it
was he may have been hiding, none of them could have possibly thought it would be something
like this.
“He’s actually out looking for Bdubs right now. Last I heard from him, he was on his way to the
Skyscraper himself.”
Joel had been just around the corner of the house when they were talking about where Etho
went. Had Joel heard everything they’d said? Was he looking to seize an opportunity where he
knew him and Etho would be alone and fully separated from their groups??
Thoughts swarmed through Tango’s head on all the things that could have taken place between
Joel and Etho during the time in which it took everyone else to travel from the mob spawner to the
nether. What did they say to each other? Did they do anything even??
“Did he tell you anything?” Scott asked, voicing one of Tango’s many questions.
He could see Etho swallow hard before answering. “He told me everything.” He said quietly.
The last time Tango had spoken to his friend about Joel, he may have been upset, but at least he
was stable. Now, however, Etho seemed about two seconds away from a meltdown, not to mention
a complete emotional wreck on top of that.
Despite his state, Etho still continued. “I ran away and I- I just felt so overcome. I wasn’t paying
attention to where I was going, what was going on around me…”
The creeper explosion. It was still early enough for spiders and creepers to have not despawned yet.
One could have just as easily snuck up on him if he weren’t paying attention, which he clearly
hadn’t been after having an unexpected encounter with Joel.
“And what was it you just handed to Lizzie?” Cleo asked hesitantly.
For a while, everyone was silent again. Etho seemed to be looking for the right words to say, or
really, just contemplating if he should tell any of them about this at all.
Then, he spoke again. Just two simple words.
“The truth.”
Tango frowned, now with more questions than he had before. “Etho-?”
Etho closed his teary eyes and shook his head. Without another word, he walked back out the front
door and closed it behind him.
No one tried to go after him.
Chapter End Notes
Scott - Green
Jimmy - X
Tango - Yellow
Cleo - Yellow
Bdubs - Yellow
Etho - Green
Grian - Green
Scar - Yellow
Bigb - Red
Ren - Red
Martyn - X
Impulse - Yellow
Pearl - Yellow
Joel - Green
Lizzie - Yellow
All of You
Chapter Summary
Scott and Tango speculate about Joel with Cleo. They catch some fish and finish the
garden.
Chapter Notes
“Such a large lighthouse.” Cleo spoke as she overlooked the ocean from under them. “And yet, I
live in it alone.”
Scott frowned. His friend had made her way to the top floor that held the fire pit so that she could
get some fresh air. After a while however, Scott presumed that she wouldn’t have wanted to be
alone for too long, and he was probably right given that she started talking to him and Tango the
moment they followed her up there.
Cleo laughed sadly, continuing her talk as she stared blankly at the waves. “Guess the fact that all
my teammates have left says a lot about me.”
Scott shook his head. “You can’t possibly be beating yourself up about all this, can you?” She
didn’t deserve this. In a way, she was no different than any of them. Perhaps she didn’t lose a
partner through Double Life like several of them had, but she still lost plenty during that time. She
was still so much more isolated from all her friends, who were either too busy fighting each other
or dealing with their own drama. And Scott—the preoccupied moron that he was—neglected to
realize that.
“Yeah, come on, Cleo.” Tango agreed; he was leaning over the railings to the right of her. “If
anything, you’ve been everyone’s anchor throughout all this. I have no idea what would have
happened by now if we all didn’t at least have you as a friend to keep us sane.”
Scott had to agree with him, though Cleo didn’t seem to react much to those words. If anything, her
complexion soured.
“I suppose there’s still some reward to being that way.” She muttered quietly before looking over to
Scott. “Speaking of anchors, I wonder if Etho left just so he could go run back to his boat-
boyfriend…”
If Scott had been drinking something, he would have probably spit it out upon hearing that.
“C-Cleo??” He stammered.
“You can’t just say stuff like that!” Tango said, equally surprised.
Cleo paused. “I’m sorry.” She admitted sheepishly. “You’re right. That was uncalled for. But you
both already know, don’t you? They’re so clearly still into each other.”
Scott had mixed feelings on the matter prior to Trust Life. No one could deny that Joel had been
acting weird ever since he came back from Double Life. It made sense in the beginning, but after
months without change, it was starting to get concerning. Some people, including Scott, began
wondering if there was something he was still hiding.
“I mean, at first I thought it was just Etho,” Cleo went on. “but now, I’m certain.”
Scott let his body deflate as he mimicked Tango and rested his weight on the railings. “I don’t
think you’re wrong.”
Both her and Tango turned their heads to him.
“Joel’s been weird since the day he came back from Double Life. If he really was still into Etho,
then I assumed it at least wouldn’t take him all that long to get over him.”
They had only bonded for a little over a week, after all. What kind of emotional connection gets
created in a week thats powerful enough to carry on strongly and painfully for the six months that
followed? How could knowing someone for such a short amount of time warrant half a year of
pining and desperation?
At least, that’s what Scott had first assumed.
Then, he got to know Tango…

“Scott?”
Scott shot his head up from where he was looking. They were both still staring at him. Tango in
particular, seemed concerned about his prolonged silence.
Scott turned away. “…Forget I said anything.”
Neither of them seemed to demand context from that statement. Thankfully, they both just let it go.
The three remained peacefully silent as they continued watching the waves, staring at nothing.
Cleo was the first to speak up again.
“You know… I never did voice my opinion much over this whole situation, but I think that maybe
Grian—in his absolute insanity—might have been on to something.”
Scott raised an eyebrow at her. He was quick to stand up fully once he saw his friend’s visible
distress, her wavering voice doing nothing to mask the hurt in her eyes.
“—Cause I can’t stand this either, you know?” Cleo said shakily, holding a hand over her mouth. “I
just want all of us to go back to normal. I-“
Scott was about to reach out to her, before she cut herself off.
“Heh, what am I even saying? She laughed sadly, shrugging off her previous statement. “At least
Ren and Martyn seem to be on the right track again.” Cleo turned to look at him and Tango
respectively, seeming to have relaxed a bit. “Then there’s also whatever the heck has been going on
with you two.”
She… actually just said that. Wow.
Scott felt his face warm up, and out of the corner of his eye, he could see Tango blushing
awkwardly all the same.
“Cleo, I swear to god…” Scott said breathlessly as he gripped the railing. There was zero bite to his
words, but he still couldn’t just say nothing to that.
“Well,” Tango added suddenly, eyeing him over Cleo’s shoulder. “you did say you liked me—“
“Tango-!!” Scott yelled, caught utterly off guard by the blaze’s blatantness.
Cleo’s eye’s went wide at this statement. That fact that he didn’t outright deny it right away only
added to its validity.
“I- What the heck??” Cleo yelled, eyes darting frantically between the two of them as she cracked
a smile that was anything but subtle. “Has the nether frozen over??”
Scott’s face only grew hotter, all the while, Cleo began laughing, which only picked up in volume
from there. Tango had fully covered his flushed face with his hands by now. Despite his vision
being obstructed, Scott still glared at him with the sharpness of a thousand icicles. He knew
exactly what he was doing when he blurted that out, but in knowing this, Scott just couldn’t be
genuinely mad at him. He clearly knew that that was probably the one and only thing that would
distract Cleo from her sulking completely at a moment’s notice. And Scott was a bit grateful that
the blaze had come up with that idea.
Eventually, Cleo’s hollering settled down, as all she was capable of doing after a while was
sputtering and gasping as she tried to properly breath again. Scott would have been peeved had he
not known Cleo as well as he did. Her laughter was not so much directed at them as it was at the
absurdity of the situation. And Scott had to agree, admitting to liking Tango was completely absurd
—but it was also refreshing.
“Are you finished?” He asked, rolling his eyes.
Cleo simply nodded, her new smile never leaving her face.
“Hey, oh mighty, generous anchor.” Tango spoke up again, his blush slowly fading away. “As one
of the many favors you do for us on a daily basis, do you think you could let us grab some fish
from your part of the ocean so that we could use them in our build?”
Scott had nearly forgotten about all that, but he couldn’t say he wasn’t glad that Tango still wanted
to move ahead with it.
Cleo heaved a final breath out, now seemingly back to normal. “I don’t see any problem with that.”
She grinned. “I guess I could permit it.”
Scott was happy with that answer. Tango seemed so too. Maybe this day didn’t have to be so
terrible after all.
Scott hadn’t bothered to craft a swim suit like he did last time considering that this was suppose to
be an in-and-out sort of thing rather than the beach day he’d spent at this base a few days ago. At
least, thats how it was suppose to be, but catching fish in a bucket seemed a lot harder than he
remembered it being. Perhaps it was the very loud distraction that was his teammate who served as
the main reason for his struggle.
Scott flinched and backed away as Tango walked past him, splashing water up against his rolled-up
jeans. Great. Now he was wet past his knees.
“Could you not?” He asked, turning to Tango, who was now a bit deeper into the water. “I’m
trying not to get my clothes wet.”
Tango, who had taken a similar route and discarded his vest and sweater on the beach a long time
ago, turned to look at where the water had hit him and shrugged. “They dry quickly in the sun.”
“That’s not the point.” He scoffed. “They dry quicker for you too, don’t they? Cause you can like
—heat them with your body and stuff?”
Tango smirked mockingly. “Since you seem so jealous about what I can do, you should know that
I’m still freezing as of right now-“
Before he could finish, a small, but powerful wave that neither of them saw coming swept past
them, hitting Tango hard enough to knock him over completely. Scott, however, was able to keep
his balance and only got soaked up to his waist.
Quickly, Tango lunged back up from the water, frantically gasping for air and, frankly, looking
like a bit of a wet cat in Scott’s opinion.
Scott grinned devilishly as he and Tango locked eyes again.
“Don’t laugh.” The blaze glared.
Scott, of course, completely ignored him and began snickering like a child. This unfortunately
pulled his attention away from a sopping wet Tango, who was now working his way over to him
with a bucket full of water.
He only noticed at the last second what the other was planning on doing.
Scott’s eyes widened. “ Wait-! ” He tried to yell, but had a full bucket of seawater dunked over his
head before he could even attempt to step out of the way. He was seething once he caught his
breath again. Now, Tango was the one laughing, if a bit oddly through his slightly chattering teeth.
Scott wasn’t always one to feel cold easily, but it was somewhat windy outside, so perhaps that
was contributing to the other’s shivering state. That, and maybe the fact that water wasn’t exactly
his element.
Still, that didn’t stop Scott from kicking more water at him and Tango, of course, was quick to
retaliate by haphazardly scooping more into his bucket and throwing it in Scott’s direction. This all
went back and forth for a while, neither of them seeming to care to stay dry anymore, given how
wet they already were, nor did they take it too seriously. Scott was just petty like that and
apparently so was Tango.
“Are you two quite finished?” Cleo’s voice rang from across the beach, making them both stop
what they were doing momentarily to listen. From where Scott was standing, Cleo appeared to be
making some sort of sand sculpture in lieu of any armor stands. Which made sense given that she
wouldn’t have been able to place any heads on them otherwise.
“Mostly.” Tango chimed, eyeing Scott every few seconds, likely to make sure he wasn’t about to
dump any more water on him while he was talking. “You know you could help us out if you’d
like.”
Cleo seemed to consider the offer for a moment as she observed the blaze’s now very noticeable
shivering before ultimately returning to the build she was working on. “I’m good, thanks.” She
smirked. “The coldness of death has frozen me over enough already.”
Scott was unsure whether she was referring to the fact that she was a zombie hybrid, or that she’d
just lost a life that day, but he figured whichever one it was didn’t really change anything.
“Sh- shit-“
Scott’s attention was quickly captured by Tango again. He turned back to him, the blaze’s entire
body now visibly shaking, to his surprise. Scott cursed under his breath and tried to make his way
over to him. Tango stood frozen in place, arms wrapped around his torso as he tried to conserve his
own body heat.
“Are you okay?” Scott asked once he’d gotten closer. He could see the other’s lips and teeth still
chattering as he sucked in a sharp breath. Damn it. He really did seem to be freezing cold. Scott
was quickly starting to regret laughing at him the first time around.
But Tango only turned his head up in response, throwing on what Scott would call the least
convincing look of reassurance he’d ever seen. “I’m all good.” The other smiled through quivering
lips. “Just- r- really freezing right now…”
Scott furrowed his brows, unconvinced. He positioned himself partially behind Tango and placed
his hands on his back and shoulder, carefully guiding him towards the shore. “Think we have
enough fish already, wouldn’t you say?”
Tango let out a laugh, which was really more of a wheeze given his current state. “D- definitely.”
Cleo was already waiting for them once they’d made it back, carrying Tango’s hoodie with her.
Though when he reached out to grab it, she swiftly pulled it away.
“You’d be less cold if you took your shirt off first.” Cleo claimed. “Cold water clinging to the
fabric and all that. It’d probably dry faster too.”
Tango scoffed. “Well since you’re being so b-bossy about it…”

Scott breathed a laugh at his teammate’s attitude. He knew he was probably just frustrated from
the cold, but he had to agree with Cleo. Getting the wet clothes off would definitely help—
Scott’s thoughts came to an abrupt stop.
Tango was now naked from the waist up and frustratingly ringing some of the water out of his
shirt. Scott realized that he’d never actually seen the guy shirtless before. Entranced by the new
sight, he half-consciously observed the many drops of cool liquid making their way down the
blaze’s neck and chest, his hair, normally slicked back, now partially sticking to his forehead. He
wasn’t all that appealing by any basic standard. He even still had that shaky, uncomfortable wet-cat
look to him. But in observing the other in that state, a thought that had never even crossed Scott’s
mind before suddenly came to light in that instance.
Tango was really, really hot.
Unfortunately for Scott, he was given zero time to process this thought before something wet
smacked itself against his chest. He flinched, stumbling backwards in surprise, only to hear the
sound of laughter start to pick up from Tango again.
“What the heck??” He yelled, more than a little annoyed.
“Oh good. You are alive.” Tango smiled cheekily at him as he tossed the wet shirt he’d apparently
slapped him with on to the sand before finally throwing his dry hoodie back on over his bare chest.
Out of the corner of his eye, Scott noticed Cleo giving him a curious look. He began to put some of
these pieces together and, now starting to panic a little internally, pondered a terrifying question to
himself.
Just how long had he been staring at Tango for??
“The tiredness finally getting to you?” The blaze asked, drawing Scott’s attention back to him.
“Yeah.” He replied automatically, his thoughts still completely elsewhere. “ Ah-, don’t even know
where I am sometimes.” He lied.
Tango tilted his head, looking more concerned all of a sudden. “Let’s try to sleep early tonight,
alright?” He said calmly. And all Scott found himself capable of was nodding his head slowly.
He said close to nothing for most of the walk back.
During the time they’d spent in the ocean, the two of them were able to gather five fish in total. At
one point, Scott remembered half-jokingly asking Tango if they could add in the pufferfish he’d
caught. Tango didn’t hesitate to give him a very hard ‘no’ in reply, but as of now, Scott was
starting to feel grateful that he’d done so.
The small fish pond they’d made looked, to put it plainly, really cute. It had a few Lilly pads
floating in it, some stepping stones too, along with three different types of tropical fish and two
regular ones. But what was really nice, was how warm the water was.
Tango had left momentarily to go put some of their materials away in the house once they were
getting close to finishing it. Meanwhile, Scott took the time to kick off his shoes and stick his feet
in. It felt nice to do this. It’d been a good while since he’d just stopped to smell the roses, both
metaphorically and literally. Scott watched two of the fish graze past his feet, admiring how calm
and carefree they were.
Yeah, he was glad they didn’t add in the pufferfish.
But Scott’s calm mood was still being threatened by his thoughts from earlier. Only now did he
have time to process them. And only now, while he was sitting in what could arguably be the most
calming and serene environment on the server, was he starting to panic a little more.
Though perhaps he was making a bigger deal out of this than he needed to? Was this a very
surprising revelation for him? Sure, but it was nothing he hadn’t thought about with other men
before. Heck, he could even go down the list for this one. Joel was hot; no argument there. Scar
was hot, definitely. Jimmy was—
…God, Jimmy was so fucking hot.
But he didn’t count. No. Liking someone emotionally was bound to warp one’s perspective on
their physical appearance. It was simple logic. Feeling happy around a certain person would make
one attribute their likeness to good feelings, therefore, one would be bound to base a preference for
looks off of said person’s physical features.
Although that only got Scott thinking harder on the subject. Going by that logic, had he ever found
Tango to be good-looking before now? Even just a little? Or was he always too preoccupied on
how much he hated him to bother taking a closer look?
“What are you doing?”
Scott sat up straight and peered up at Tango, who had found his way back over to him. He
shrugged at the question. “Didn’t get enough water earlier today. Figured I could use some more.”
The blaze chuckled. “You’re weird.”
“You should join me.”
There was a beat of silence.
“Okay.” Tango replied in a low voice before moving to take his shoes off and roll his pants back
up. He settled down in the same position next to him, sitting there calmly for a minute and
observing the fish just as Scott had.
“Oh! Almost forgot.” The blaze jolted. Then, he made a motion to summon an item in his hands.
“Cleo gave me this earlier.” He said, handing Scott a handful of diamonds. “It’s your share, from
that deal you did with Martyn and Ren.”
Scott observed the items, surprised by the amount. “Do you actually expect me to believe they
paid us 20 diamonds each?” He looked at Tango, who was doing a terrible job of masking his lie.
“I don’t need my share.” He argued. “I wouldn’t know what to do with it anyway.”
Scott extended his arm out, trying to hand some of the diamonds back to his unwilling teammate.
“You think I need any more either?”
“It could still come in handy for later” Tango insisted, slowly shoving his hand back. “Besides,
you did pretty much all of the work between us. You’re the one who made it to the top of Grian’s
base and snatched the table.”
“I would have sent you to red if you hadn’t thrown water under me. Or I would have just gotten
caught while stumbling around in the dark.”
“Yeah, well, you’re still the one who spoke to Impulse and his group for me when I was too much
of a coward to do it myself.”
Scott narrowed his eyes at the other. He said his next words reluctantly, but truthfully.
“I didn’t do that for diamonds. I did that for you.”
Tango seemed ready to argue back again before the words fully registered in his head. He closed
his mouth, furrowing his brows in a worried look as he tried to read if Scott was lying.
“…You didn’t have to.” The blaze finally answered, seemingly unsure of what else to say to that.
“I wanted to.” Scott said truthfully.
“…Why?”
Scott wasn’t sure exactly what might have changed between this morning and now. Etho’s display
of emotions might have played a part in it. Same with Cleo’s apparently deep interest in how their
relationship was developing. All he knew was that over the course of this game, he’d felt less and
less of a need to hide things from Tango. Hiding the fact that he still loved Jimmy?—Why would
that have mattered at this point? Hiding his past?—That clearly only ever led to misunderstandings.
Hiding his feelings… Well, before now, Scott could have argued that showing vulnerability around
Tango would only make him disrespect him more. He could argue that revealing to Tango that he
cared about him could be used as leverage for some kind of manipulation. But as of now, Scott
trusted the blaze enough to stop caring about all of those things. In fact, at this stage, it wasn’t even
a question of ‘should he?’ but a rather simple desire to do so.
Scott looked the other in his eyes. “Why?” He asked back. “Because I care about you, Tango.”
Tango’s immediate reaction to this response was surprise. Then, Scott quickly saw his expression
of shock turn to one of dread, brows furrowing and mouth forming a flat line. Tango looked away
from him, opting to stare into the water instead.
“I’m the last person you should be caring about…”
Somehow, he was right. It was a contradiction. A completely ridiculous notion, and yet, it was how
Scott felt and he couldn’t even force himself to feel anything less.
“I know.” He replied plainly.
They both left it at that.
“Just- keep them.” Tango restated as if trying to steer the conversation back to the diamonds. “At
least until we know what to do with them.”
Scott sighed in defeat, storing them away. “Okay.”
Tango kicked his feet around in the water once more. The fish still didn’t seem bothered by it.
“The water actually feels kinda nice when it’s just my feet.” He said, a gentle smile working its
way back into his face.
Scot nodded in agreement. “We did a good job.”
“Yeah, we did.”
The sun was still high up in the sky. A little past midday, but still brightly shining down on the
grass and water. Scott took the moment of peace as an opportunity to truly relax. Tango seemed
surprised when he went to lay his back down on the warm surface, keeping his knees bent over the
edge of the pond with his feet still in the water. After a moment however, he went to join him
again, repeating the motion till they were both lying there, soaking in the warm sun.
“I like it here.” Scott spoke quietly as he looked up at the sky. He then turned his head on its side
to look at his teammate, who in turn did the same. “Thanks, for making me stay.” He smiled
calmly; he meant every word.
Tango blinked, frowning. “As if any stupid thing I’ve ever said could actually influence you.” He
claimed. “You’re your own person, Scott. You don’t take shit from anyone and you definitely
don’t need to listen to anyone but yourself.”
He paused for a second, letting out a small laugh. “—Unless someone’s telling you to get some
sleep. Then you should absolutely listen to them.”
Now, it was Scott’s turn to frown. “I’m not who you think I am.” He insisted, recalling everything
he’d done in the game up until now. “I’m not head-strong, or a badass, or-“
‘Amazing.’ He’d called him amazing when he thought he wasn’t listening.
“—or whatever else you think of me.” Scott said, keeping that final thought to himself.
Of course Tango got the impression that he was some sort of determined, resilient player. He’d
never actually gotten to know him this well from before everything with Double Life happened.
“I’m not normally like this. I- I’m not…”
Surprisingly, his reaction didn’t seem to surprise Tango in the slightest. “I know.” He said,
reaching an arm out to gesture at the garden around them. “You’re more like this, right?”
Scott said nothing. Somehow, Tango had phrased that perfectly. But still, he was afraid to answer.
“I like this too.” Tango smiled. “All of this.”
Scott continued to stare deeply into the other’s eyes as he listened to his reassuring words.
“I liked it when it was an empty backyard we used for cooking, building, talking… And I like it
now, just as it is.”
The meaning behind what the blaze was really referring to needed no explanation.
Scott closed his eyes, still keeping his face neutral. He’d been dwelling on following through with
this since this morning, but now, the decision to do so seemed much clearer than before.
“I want to tell you some more about Third Life.” He muttered, opening his eyes.
Tango’s body jolted slightly at that. He clearly hadn’t expected him to bring that up again all of a
sudden. “Wait—really?”
“Really.” Scott nodded. “I’m okay with it. I promise.”
The blaze looked as though he were about to object the notion before silently closing his mouth
and nodding back. It seemed as though he’d learned by now that once he’d decided on something,
it was final. “Well then, I’m all ears.”
Scott turned his head around, now staring directly up at the sky again. “Where to start this time…”
Chapter End Notes
Scott entering his “Oh no he’s hot” arc rn

What’s Wrong With You?
Chapter Summary
Tango tries to move Scott while he’s sleeping. He comes across a fight between Joel
and Etho.
Chapter Notes
It was a beautiful night out. The air was clean, the sky full of stars, the temperature perfect…
Everything felt just right with the world. Everything other than Scott actually being awake at this
ungodly hour to admire it.
He hadn’t expected to have been able to sleep easily his first few nights away from home. That
always seemed to be how this went whenever him and his friends (who’s names and faces he could
not remember) would move to a new server. The first night or two, he was always at least a little
restless, but never to this extent. At this hour, he felt like the loneliest person in the world. There
was no way in hell anyone else was awake right now. There was no one to talk to, no one who
could accompany him, it was just himself and whatever thoughts plagued his mind at the moment.
This time in particular, he seemed to be thinking mostly about his and everyone else’s amnesia. He
continued to wonder what his life was like outside of the game, who he was friends with, all the
usual stuff. It wasn’t as if these were particularly burning questions of his. Scott knew he’d find out
eventually, but in the meantime, he let it keep him up at night, despite how mundane some might
call his concerns.
The place he and Jimmy had settled in was nice and quiet. It brought a comforting aesthetic with
all the flowers surrounding it, not to mention It was also well lit so that no mobs would disrupt
them during the night. Which was a good thing, because otherwise Scott just knew there’d be a
heard of phantoms hovering over him at this very moment. He continued to wander around the
small area him and his “new” friend had come to call home. He spent some time admiring the
pond and all the different flowers. Everything just seemed to glow so perfectly in the moonlight.
The drowsiness, however, was still hitting him hard, but as he continued to pace around the area he
found his desire to sleep only lessening all the same.
There was a point where he’d stopped near Jimmy’s house to admire a few of the flowers that were
there. He hadn’t been paying much attention to who was approaching him from behind.
“Are you okay?”

If Scott had the energy to jump out of his skin right then, he would have, but instead, the sudden
voice coming from behind him only caused him to flinch slightly.
He turned around, surprised to see Jimmy, who was also awake and looking equally tired.
“Sorry.” He said, raising a hand up. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”
Scott eyed him curiously for a second before settling down enough to reply to him. “It’s alright.
And—I’m fine, by the way.” He paused, looking the other over. “I’m sorry if all my pacing woke
you up.”
Jimmy shook his head, throwing his hand back nonchalantly. “I couldn’t fall asleep anyway.” He
said. “Speaking of which, what’s got you up?”
Scott let out a small laugh. “Stupid things.” He shook his head.
Jimmy frowned. “Well if it’s keeping you awake, then it can’t be stupid.”
“You’d be surprised. I get this way over a lot of things.”
He heard Jimmy shuffle a little closer to him. He didn’t mind this, though he wondered why the
other felt the desire to humor him like this. Why hadn’t he just gone back to bed already?
“You can tell me, if it’ll help.” Jimmy said quietly, much to Scott’s surprise. “I promise, whatever
it is, I won’t think its stupid.”
Scott turned back to look at him, only now taking in how serious he looked. He still hadn’t known
Jimmy for all that long. They’d joked around, built a few things together, herded some cows…
being with him really did feel like being with a close friend. But this was the first time during the
game in which they’d be having any kind of deep conversation with each other. Scott wondered if
Jimmy was the type to actually commit to that sort of thing.
“Do you think this was a bad idea?” He asked, his tired, unfiltered brain speaking for him.
He saw Jimmy raise an eyebrow, not quite turning the question down, but rather asking him to
elaborate.
“ This .” Scott repeated. “Joining this game. Wiping our memories…”
Jimmy’s eyes gleamed with realization. He placed a hand to his face and hummed. “Well, we’re
the ones who ultimately chose to do it and it’s not like they’re gone forever. We’ll get them back
eventually.” He looked at Scott and smiled softly. “But, no. No I don’t think it was a bad idea.”
“Why’s that?”
“Well, for starters…” The canary rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “Participating this game
let me meet you, and I think you’re really great.”
Scott tilted his head at the other in confusion. He had not expected that answer in the slightest.
”Me?”
“Of course!” The canary said enthusiastically. “You’ve kept me company, helped me build a
house, gotten me out of trouble more than once by now…”
He looked away for a moment, face still holding that awkward, but cute smile on it.
“I really like you.”
Scott, despite all his worries and tiredness, actually managed to smile back at those words. He
sighed, letting Jimmy meet his gaze again. “We probably already know each other outside of this
game anyway.” He countered.
“That’s even better then.”

“Why would you think that?”
Jimmy shrugged casually. “Because then I get to meet you all over again.”
He’d said that as if it were the simplest thing to for him to understand, even though it really didn’t
make much sense when one thought about it. Jimmy was so quick to suggest that they’d not only
been good friends outside this game, but that they’d been close enough in such a way that was
strong enough to lead them back to each other in this world despite the amnesia, and to top it all
off, the man practically confessed to liking him to the point that simply meeting him the second
time around was still something to be appreciated in his eyes.
Well, perhaps he could say the same about Jimmy, all things considered. He really had been a good
friend to him in every way that mattered. He’d never even pondered sticking with someone else
since the very beginning of the game. Even now, Jimmy didn’t seem to want to sleep until he did.
He really did seem to hold a constant care for other people in him that never seemed to waver, and
that was a rare thing to find in anyone, really.
Scott could say all that, but instead, he chose to let his 3am brain do the talking once again.
“Did you want to stay at my place?” He found himself suddenly asking.
Jimmy’s eyes widened slightly, but he didn’t immediately say ‘no’.
Now, it was Scott who felt awkward. That was a really weird thing he’d just asked. Shoot.
“It’s just—“ Scott rambled on, trying to save face. “—I know that having company usually helps
me fall asleep. I- I don’t know why exactly since I can’t really remember-“
“Of course.” Jimmy replied mid-sentence. He had that kind smile once again, the one that seemed
so genuine. “Whatever helps, y’know?”
“Right.” Scott agreed, hoping he wasn’t actively blushing at that moment over what he’d said.
“Whatever helps…”
They both eventually made their way back around to his build. Not much was said between them
the rest of the night, but Scott really did feel a lot more relaxed with Jimmy there with him.
He sure was glad he’d kept a spare bed in there…
“Scott?”
“Hm?”
Tango rolled over to his side to see his teammate, who’s eyes were now gently shut. He had his
arms folded calmly over his chest and was still resting his back on the grass. “You trailed off a
little there.”
It took Scott a second to respond, but when he did, it was with a sleepy “Oh.”
He didn’t say anything after, his eyes still calmly closed.
“Did you wanna call it a night?”
Scott hummed. “Sun’s hardly set yet.” He breathed quietly.
Tango sighed. “Well neither of us slept last night, so…”
His teammate, quiet as ever, didn’t respond this time. Tango propped himself up with his elbow,
leaning slightly over the other to get a better look at him. “Scott?”
Tango was quick to realize that the man had now fallen asleep completely, his gentle breathing just
barely audible, even with how quiet the environment was around them. He smiled to himself. For
only the second time that game, Scott really did look completely at peace to him. He wondered if
he dreamt about Jimmy sometimes like he did, or if maybe he just didn’t have any dreams at all.
Either way, he at least didn’t seem the type to have nightmares too often, as during the few times
Tango had seen him asleep, he was always so calm and unaware. Just careless and peaceful.
The blaze had sat up completely by then, now looking back up at the sky. Scott was right, the sun
had hardly set yet, but it was beginning to. The sky looked a glowing shade of orange, the trees it
was sinking behind casting a large shadow over both them and the garden. Tango looked back over
at his sleeping teammate. Soon, it would be dark. And while the surrounding area was still very
well lit, it would still be unwise to just leave Scott to whatever or whoever may come across him
while he was unconscious.
Tango continued sitting there, pondering what to do. Scott really did seem to fall asleep in the most
inconvennient places. By now, Tango knew that he was definitely a heavy sleeper. He’d learned
that from yanking his arm out from under him and having long, one-sided conversations with the
guy without him waking up. All that to say, that if another player were to try and sneak up on him
while he was sleeping in an attempt to phantom kill him, they would probably succeed.
An idea suddenly struck Tango. Scott was a heavy sleeper—and he needed to get him inside…
No. that was stupid. Absolutely ridiculous. Scott would probably yell at him for it if he were to
wake up while he was doing it.
But if he didn’t…
Tango hovered a hand over the other’s sleeping figure. He didn’t do anything right away, instead,
opting to weigh his options in his head while the sun continued to set. Either he wakes Scott up,
hopefully, with him still tired enough to fall right back asleep as soon as they were both inside, or,
he brings him in himself, still taking the risk of him waking up during the process of being carried.
Somehow, for some reason, the second option made more sense to Tango.
He just wanted to take care of him…
Slowly and only a little hesetantly, Tango lowered his hands guiding one of them to run under his
knees, and the other under his shoulders.
He held his breath.
Surprisingly, Scott hadn’t woken up at that. He hadn’t even stirred.
The blaze rested his weight on his knees. Then, after taking a deep breath in, he lifted the other up
into his arms. Tango was fairly strong and Scott was much lighter than he’d anticipated. Still,
while his first thought at that should have been ‘oh thank god’, what ended up coming to mind
right away instead was ‘had he been eating alright?’ Tango knew he hadn’t been for the first few
days of the game, what with his horrible tiredness still killing his appetite, but he hadn’t seen Scott
struggling to eat for a while now, so hopefully he really was just a generally light person.
He sucked in another breath and carefully crouched on the heels of his feet, then, he stood up
completely, the man in his arms still showing no signs of having woken up. Tango breathed out in
relief. Now, came the easy part. Gently, he walked them both back inside the house, skillfully
making sure to shut the already half-open door with his feet.
But it was when he began making his way over to Scott’s bed that he felt him start to move around
in his arms.
Right away, Tango began to panic internally, thinking that he’d somehow woken him up, but as he
stopped to look down at the other, he saw something even more unexpected. Scott had curled his
upper body even closer into his chest, his face buried directly into the warmth of Tango’s hoodie
while one of his hands gripped at the fabric. He heard Scott let out a low murmur as he tried to get
even closer to him. Tango felt his face heat up at the intimate display, unsure of how he felt about
it.
All he really knew, was that for some reason, he didn’t exactly hate it.
But he still had to lie Scott down. Which was exactly what he tried doing when he went to place
him down on the bed. Scott however, even in his unconscious state, was having none of it. The
man continued clinging to the him like his life depended on it. Despite this, Tango still tried his
best to untangle them both without waking the other up. He’d placed Scott down on the mattress,
the other still gripping on to his hoodie in a way that dragged both their faces ridiculously close to
each other. Tango’s cheeks only grew warmer as he placed a gentle hand on top of Scott’s and
began weaving his own fingers in between his. Eventually, he was able to get him to fully let go.
Tango lowered himself down to one knee, putting him at eye-level with his sleeping teammate. He
still held his hand in his own, and despite the effort he’d gone through to get it detached from him,
by some kind of insanity—
—he didn’t want to let go…
Tango cupped the appendage in his own hand, admiring it as he thought back to when Scott had let
him hold it previously. His hand was still warm and soft, skin pale and beautiful, nails a bit dirty
from all the planting and building they’d been doing, yet to him, still unflawed in any way. Tango
felt a little frustrated at just how much he was admiring the other. He hadn’t found Scott any less
beautiful than he did yesterday morning. If anything, this perspective of him had only deepened.
God, Scott was just so perfect. He was going to ruin him. He—
…What was he doing?
In an instant, Tango released the other’s hand, letting it fall on to the mattress. He then jolted back
upright, taking slow but large steps backwards.
What the actual fuck was he doing??
“What am I doing?” Tango breathed aloud softly, unintentionally voicing his thoughts. “What the
fuck am I—?”
He looked at his hand, then back up at Scott. Thankfully, he hadn’t woken up from any of that.
That didn’t make Tango any less terrified by this situation.
Without thinking twice about it, he turned away and ran back out the way he came in.
The blaze’s thoughts were racing. He needed to think on this, but more importantly, he just needed
to get away from Scott, because this was just insane. He shouldn’t be thinking like this—He
shouldn’t! Maybe he could have excused his actions the first time when he’d decided to continue to
let Scott rest on him, when he’d stared at him for minutes at a time, admiring him while he slept.
Maybe he was able to have convinced himself that he’d found Scott beautiful on a purely physical
level back then, but if that were the case, then how the hell was that suppose to explain what he
just did back there??
There was no excuse for it. It was actual desire he was feeling in that moment. Some kind of
emotion that made him want to hold Scott despite having every reason in the book not to. He was
captivated by him. Infatuated, even. And that wasn’t okay. For fucks sake—he had a boyfriend!
And out of all the people he could have felt this way about, it ended up being his boyfriend’s EX??
“What the fuck is wrong with me??” Tango repeated to himself, this time, much louder than before
now that he was away from the cabin completely. He continued pacing deeper into the woods, the
still-setting sun only enhancing his panicked state as it reminded him just how close to nighttime it
was. But despite this, he just kept going farther and farther away, afraid of what he’d think or do if
he were with Scott again. Oh god—was he really this unstable? Was separating himself from the
other really the only option here?? This was crazy. He was crazy. What’s wrong with him what’s
wrong with him what’s wrong with-??
Tango’s panicked thoughts were cut short by the sound of distant yelling.
“Wha-?”
He shook his head clear, trying to listen for it again. After a few moments, he heard the sound of
metal hitting something blunt, followed by even more yelling from what sounded like a male
voice.
Tango tried to put his internal meltdown aside momentarily as he made his way forward in the
direction of the noises. Soon, he found himself running again, the voice he was hearing only
growing louder, until he was almost certain of who it belonged to.
The blaze made his way around a small patch of trees, poking his head from behind them only to
see—
“Joel?”
Joel didn’t seem to have heard him. In fact, as if on cue, he leaped to the side, feet pivoting swiftly
in a manner befitting a player with years of fighting experience. He took a dive to the right,
attempting to land a blow on the person he appeared to be fighting with. Tango could see some
parts of another body from in front of Joel as he moved about, but nothing too distinguishable
given the shield the other person was holding up. That, and how ominously silent they were being.
Joel continued to yell, his sword hitting anything and everything it could manage. Yet still, the
person he was apparently attacking refused to hit back themselves.
Tango saw Joel grit his teeth at this, gripping his sword so tightly in frustration that it turned his
knuckles white. “Stop running and fight back! You bloody coward!!”
It was then that he landed one final blow to the other player’s shield, breaking it for good after
what was probably a long and tedious series of hits to it. The item split directly in half and
vanished, finally revealing to Tango who Joel had been fighting.
Behind the shield, was a tired and terrified-looking Etho.
Joel swung his sword at him once more, this time, landing a direct hit on the other man’s shoulder.
Tango watched as he jolted in discomfort, but still refused to fight back.
Joel went in for another hit, and it was then that Tango had decidedly seen enough of this. “Hey!”
He yelled loudly, finally getting both of their attention. Tango ran up to where Etho was standing
and—quickly recognizing his own lack of a shield in his inventory—proceeded to block him with
his body. Immediately, Tango felt the sting of a hit to his arm, but he didn’t move. He only
continued to block Etho, both his arms outstretched and frantically gesturing for a a ceasefire.
“Dude—calm down!” He yelled again. Joel thankfully seemed to back away at this momentarily, if
only out of surprise. “What’s going on??”
The man shot him a dirty glare, raising his sword up once more. “This doesn’t concern you.” He
gritted darkly. “Get the fuck out of my way, or I’ll kill you both.”
For now, Tango ignored the fact that actually killing them this way through direct force would be
impossible in this game. Instead, he chose to focus more on Joel’s appearance and the way he was
holding himself. To put it bluntly, he had looked nothing like how he had only a few short hours
ago. Hell, he looked nothing like how he had in general the past few months, all anxious and sad.
No, in this moment, describing his expression as ‘angry’ would be an understatement. This man
was pissed with a capital ‘P’, his determined stance and loathing glare shooting a small terror
through Tango the likes of which he’d rarely felt before.
If looks could kill…
Without warning, Joel took another swing at him. This time, Tango was able to grab Etho from
behind him and maneuver them both out of the way just barely in time for him to miss. But Joel’s
advances didn’t stop there, he just kept swinging and lunging with what seemed to be the force of
every muscle in his body, his attempts all holding an equal amount of strength behind them as if
fueled purely by hate.
All throughout this, Joel just kept yelling.
“You’re just gonna hide behind Tango now, are you?” He shouted, trying once again to take
another hit at Etho. “Were you always this pathetic? Did my rose-colored vision of you just make
me unable to see you for who you were up until now?”
From behind him, Tango heard the other speak up hesitantly. “Joel-“
“You absolute bastard!” Joel yelled, quick to cut him off. “Was stabbing me in the back really such
an easy decision for you?”
Another hit. This one, having landed directly on Tango, dealing him three hearts. The blaze winced
in pain. He knew he’d be well within the rules to fight back at this point, but even still, it felt
wrong to. Joel wasn’t even trying to aim for him. He’d been the one to sandwich himself in
between this chaos and get in the way of whatever the hell kind of vendetta the man apparently had
against his ex-soulmate.
At the very least, Tango took out his own sword as a warning, waving it threateningly in front of
his attacker. Though this did nothing to dispel Joel. He only remained just as eager to kill as he had
beforehand.
The fighting and yelling continued, all while Tango did his best to try and block off the blows.
“It took you half an hour.” Joel seethed at Etho as he sent another swing his way, the sound of
metal clanging on metal echoing loudly through the forest. “—Half a FUCKING hour to tell her
after you promised me you wouldn’t!”
Joel leaped forward again. This time, Tango was unable to move them both in time and the blow
hit Etho instead.
“I risked everything by coming there!” He screamed shakily. “I carved my bleeding heart out right
in front of you!! And THIS is what you DO??”
All in an instance, Tango realized just what it was they were fighting over. He recalled that piece
of paper that Etho had handed to Lizzie. The one that apparently had “the truth” tucked away in it.
He then remembered what Cleo had said.
“They’re so clearly still into each other.”
What Lizzie had suspected.
“I think he’s still in love with Etho.”
What Etho had apparently talked to Joel about.
“He told me everything.”
Tango felt his heart sink in his chest.
No way…
Surprisingly, Joel had stopped to catch his breath for a second. If by ‘catch his breath’, one meant
stopping to yell some more.
“Did you even stop to think about how much this would hurt her?” He spat, still giving Etho a
death glare. “Did that ever even cross your mind?”
For a second, Tango thought that Etho was just going to stay quiet like he had this entire time. But
then, he heard a small, serious voice answer from behind him.
“Of course it did.”
Joel raised his sword again, getting ready to start attacking once more. “Then you’re even worse
than I thought you were!” He ran at them again, this time, not taking a single break in between hits.
At this point, Tango began trying to fight back. He knew he wouldn’t be able to physically kill Joel
himself, but maybe getting him to zero hearts and killing one of his teammates would encourage
him to back off. Joel, however, was a skilled fighter already, Etho clearly didn’t want to hit him at
all, and all that wasn’t even accounting for the guy’s bloodthirsty determination.
Tango was fighting a losing battle.
“I could look past you stabbing me in the back, lying to me, humiliating me…” Joel went on,
swinging his weapon with each word and managing to cut either Tango or Etho with every other
attempt his sword made at them. At this rate, the blaze was unsure if he could hold out for much
longer.
“—I might have even still been capable of forgiving you if you’d done this out of good
intentions…”
Another hit. Tango was now down to two hearts. He was contemplating running, maybe even
leaving Etho, but Joel’s fast attacks weren’t giving him any room to break out of this.
“But you crossed the fucking line when you hurt Lizzie.” Joel spoke, lunging at them for a final
time. “You knew exactly how she’d react! You fucking KNEW—!”
His sword stabbed Tango directly through his chest. The blaze flashed red for a second. Then,
everyone’s comm went off.
None of them needed to guess who it was that just died.
In that moment, Tango pictured Scott sleeping peacefully in his bed and then instantly being jolted
awake by the sudden shock of death. He may have respawned right back where he was lying, but it
was unlikely that even he could sleep through his body literally vanishing before being thrown
back together again. That alone angered him enough, but what really sent him over the edge, was
that he’d just sent Scott down to his yellow life. His loss had been completely the result of his own
carelessness.
That, and of course, Joel.
“Tango…”
The blaze heard that small voice come from behind him once again. This time, Etho sounded more
concerned than afraid. Tango saw his vision start to go red, he smelled smoke in the air, probably
from his burning hair. He felt the anger coming on. He wanted to rip Joel to pieces for this.
Wanted to let himself lose control of his own consciousness as punishment for being so stupid…
But instead, he thought of Scott again and how he was probably now waiting for him at their base,
alone and confused and down an entire life. He thought about Jimmy, who wouldn’t be here to
calm him down, but would still want him to fight through his rage none the less.
Tango took a deep breath in. Slowly, his vision returned to normal and his hair, while still sparking
wisps of flames, wasn’t completely on fire anymore. He looked at Joel, who now seemed a lot
more scared than before, as he’d stopped charging at them completely just to stare at him in awe.
Tango clenched his teeth. “Leave.” He threatened coldly, voice so calm it was off-putting, even to
himself. “Leave while I can still think straight.”
Joel stared at them both, seeming to weigh his options. Tango knew that Etho still wouldn’t fight
back, but he most certainly would, and with his health now completely reset, there was no longer
any hard call on who would win this next fight.
With all that on the table, Joel lowered his sword, once again, glaring harshly at Etho.
“I thought I could trust you, Etho.” He said shakily, voice still laced with hate. “I thought I loved
you…”
Tango noticed his ally’s eyes crinkle. Even with the mask on, there was no hiding the hurt he was
so clearly feeling.
Joel slowly began to walk away, turning his head to glare back at his ex-soulmate one last time. His
words were cold, harsh, and final.
“I will never forgive you for this.”
With that, Joel left, moving past the surrounding trees and further into the woods until he was out
of sight completely.
Then, and only then, did Etho collapse to his knees.
By then, Tango’s anger—at least his immediate rage—had mostly subsided. Now, somehow even
more concerned than he was before, he crouched down to check on his friend. “Etho…?”
What Etho did next was… unexpected.
He started chuckling, his laughter slowly picking up until it transitioned into full-on sobbing.
Tango placed a hand to his shoulder and wrapped his other one around Etho’s back in a cautious
sort-of hug. This however, did little to calm him down.
Etho just continued crying, shaking his head knowingly. “It’s over.” He muttered. “It- it’s done…”
Tango gave the other a look of concern. At first, he was confused by his words. “What are you-?”
He spoke questioningly. “What do you mean it’s ‘done’—?”
The sudden realization hit him like a ton of bricks.
“Etho…” Tango said slowly, terrified of asking a question he wasn’t sure he wanted the answer to.
“Please tell me you’re just the stupidest person on the face of the earth.”
Etho just continued to shake his head at the ground, his tears still flowing silently.
“Tell me you didn’t anticipate Joel’s reaction to this. That you didn’t spill everything to Lizzie just
so he’d hate you for it…”
The man said nothing.
“Etho!”
Etho looked up at him, a sad smile visible in his eyes. “He doesn’t love me anymore, Tango.”
Tango’s eyes widened.
“He can finally be happy now.”
For a moment, Tango felt as if the whole world had gone quiet. All he could hear was his own
breathing and the pounding in his head.
Then, he stood up slowly, eyes still trained on his ally.
“How many hearts are you on?” He asked the other casually.
Etho blinked at him, confused. “Three—?”
Without even hesitating, Tango threw his leg forward and delivered a swift, hard kick to the side of
the other’s head. The man grunted loudly and fell on his side. He rubbed at his head as Tango went
back to kneel down beside him, yanking him upright by the shirt and glaring angrily into his eyes.
“Idiot!” He yelled, nearly incinerating the fabric he was holding between his fingers. “You spew
all this crap about letting go of the people you love, but Joel chose to come back to you!”
Etho was looking at him with genuine fear now. Good.
“What happens when they come back Etho? What the hell do you do then??”
The other’s expression mellowed out into a soft, sad gaze.
“Then…” Etho spoke quietly. “Then you make them leave. Because all you’ll ever bring them is
pain.”
Tango stared at the other in shock for a moment before finally releasing his shirt, letting him fall
back to the ground. “You’re insane…” He said, standing back up and backing away. “Joel had all
the trust in the world for you and you didn’t even hesitate to destroy it. What now, Etho? Are you
just gonna be miserable for the rest of your life?”
Etho shook his head. “Better me than both of us. There was no other way.”
Tango grit his teeth. Maybe he was right. What right did he have to be chewing him out for telling
Lizzie that Joel still had feelings for him? Lizzie was the one who wanted to know. She was too
afraid to ask herself, though, and Joel was too afraid to tell her. But Etho… Etho was the only
person in this situation who actually took action. And maybe it was out of some misguided attempt
to do what he thought was the right thing. What he thought would finally set the person he loved
free from the torment of loving two people at once, but even when everything was said and done,
Tango just couldn’t forgive what it was that he did.
Not when it was so familiar to him…
Tango began to walk away himself, hardly even able to care for the fact that he was leaving his
friend all alone in the state he was in. He didn’t even face Etho when he told him exactly what he
thought of his actions.
“You’re no better than Zed.”
Tango didn’t hear any verbal response to that. He didn’t think he would have cared if he did. He
just kept walking until Etho’s soft crying was finally out of earshot.
There wasn’t anywhere else for him to go other than back to the cabin. Scott was still there, all
alone, probably exhausted and confused. It didn’t matter how he felt about being around him at
this moment; it would still be awful of him to just leave him there alone with zero explanation on
what happened and why he’s now a yellow life. At the very least, having Scott die and respawn in
the same bed that he’d placed him in would spare him the awkward conversation he would have
had to have when he woke up, in which he explained to him how exactly he’d gotten there in the
first place.
But Tango’s mind could only focus on the mundane things for so long before what he’d witnessed
began to sink in again. He tried not to be mad at Etho. Hell, it made so much sense to not be mad at
him for this! He’d been bugging Lizzie to confront Joel about his potential feelings for his ex-
soulmate this entire time and now Etho had gone and done all the work for both her and Joel.
But at what cost?
Given the bits and pieces of what happened from Joel’s angry yelling and Etho’s half-dazed
confession, it seemed that Lizzie did not take the news that Etho had told her very well at all, and
that was the problem. It shouldn’t have been Etho who’d let her know; it should have been Joel.
Hearing it straight from him instead of from some note that the man he unintentionally cheated on
her with had thrown together in thirty minutes would have at least softened the news somewhat, but
Etho made the choice on how this situation would be handled for both of them. He took what Joel
had likely confessed to him at the Skyscraper while Lizzie and everyone else were out in the nether
and didn’t wait a second longer before writing all of Joel’s burning secrets down and going straight
to his partner with them. To Tango, it all felt too familiar. It reminded him too much of what his
own ex did and he hated it. He wanted to rationalize Etho’s actions at least somewhat, but his heart
wouldn’t let him.
Tango didn’t even register when he’d walked in through the front door of the cabin again. He
didn’t pay much attention when his tired and concerned teammate noticed him and called out his
name, only to rush forward and shake him lightly by the shoulders.
“Tango?” Scott said again, louder this time. It was only when he’d notice’d the other’s yellow
pupils that his concern from before returned. “Shit.” The blaze blinked, quickly coming back down
to earth. “Scott—are you okay?”
Scott gave him a panicked look. “Am I okay??” He asked bluntly. “You look like you’ve just
watched someone get murdered!”
Tango looked down at his hands. Oh… When had he started trembling like this? Was he crying
too? He hadn’t noticed.
“God, look at you. You’re shaking.” Scott took both of the blaze’s hands in his. He was
immediately familiar with the warm comfort and felt a little calmer as Scott guided him to one of
the beds and sat them both down.
“Hey…” He spoke gently. Scott now had both of his hands clasped around his own, keeping them
as still as he could manage without causing him discomfort. “Look at me.” He continued, staring
into his eyes. Despite knowing better than to feed in to his desires, Tango looked back. He gazed
into the eyes that had brought him comfort the night after Jimmy had died, the ones that he’d fallen
asleep staring into, that somehow, despite all the hatred they’d held for him no longer than a week
ago, had now come to represent a small piece of home to him.
Tango continued to look into them. He would have continued had he never been asked to begin
with.
“Take deep breaths.” Scott urged. And Tango did exactly that. Slowly, he felt his limbs stop
buzzing, the fog in his head clear up; he relaxed his muscles and exhaled a final long breath before
Scott seemed to think he’d calmed down enough.
“Did you want to tell me what happened?”
Tango bit his lip, unsure of what to say.
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” Scott added.
The blaze only shook his head. “Etho’s an idiot.” He muttered coldly. “Joel hates him now,
Lizzie’s probably going through a breakdown…”
He blinked up at Scott. If the vagueness of his words was confusing him even further, he didn’t let
it show.
“I’m sorry I lost your life.” He continued, turning away slightly. “—And woke you up.” He added
awkwardly.
“It’s alright.” Scott replied.
“It’s not.”
The other frowned. He let his hands slip out from where they were holding his and Tango once
again felt as though he’d just lost something precious. “Let’s just try to get some rest then.” Scott
stated “If you feel up to it, you can tell me everything in the morning, okay?”
Still somewhat on autopilot, Tango nodded his head. “Okay…”
Scott sat with him for a bit longer, but neither of them spoke much to the other after that. Tango
was honestly a bit grateful for that. He didn’t want Scott to keep giving him reasons to pay
attention to him.
Reasons to want him.
But that didn’t stop the thought’s he’d been having earlier from invading his mind once more. As
they’d both gone to lay back down, Tango realized in that moment that this would be the first time
they’d be sleeping in different beds since Jimmy died. He would have laughed at the absurdity of it
if he wasn’t so terrified of its implications. He tossed and turned all night, awake with his thoughts.
From across the room, he could hear Scott doing the same.
Neither of them got much sleep that night.
Chapter End Notes
Ik several people who’ve just finished reading this chapter probably wanna bury me
alive rn, but I still gotta ask this—any thoughts or opinions on me making a discord
server for everyone who reads this fic? *laughs anxiously*
Scott - Yellow
Jimmy - X
Tango - Yellow
Cleo - Yellow
Bdubs - Yellow
Etho - Green
Grian - Green
Scar - Yellow
Bigb - Red
Ren - Red
Martyn - X
Impulse - Yellow
Pearl - Yellow
Joel - Green
Lizzie - Yellow
This Stupid Game
Chapter Summary
Tango tells Scott what happened while he was asleep. Cleo pays them a visit. She
decides that Grian has been a green-life for far too long.
Chapter Notes
Soooo… this fic has a discord server now! You can find it right here:
https://discord.gg/BFH5qdswKy
This link shouldn’t expire any time soon, but if for some reason it doesn’t work, you
can also just DM me on my tumblr @chaiandsage and I’ll be happy to invite you
personally.
“Thank you all for coming here.” Ren stated, clapping his hands together. Faintly, Tango was able
to hear him talking from a distance. Although concentrating on what he was trying to say proved to
be more than a little difficult given the current distraction he had in his face, that being, his
soulmate turned boyfriend (question mark?). They hadn’t really slapped a label on their whole
relationship just yet, but “boyfriend” seemed to work at the moment. “Boyfriend” felt nice…
Tango sighed and leaned in deeper, parting his lips to let Jimmy’s tongue slip between them.
Surprisingly, it hadn’t taken very long for them to surpass the awkward stage of making out.
They’d done some clumsy experimenting at first, sure, but one late-night session later, and out of
nowhere they were both confessing at practically the same time just how badly they wanted each
other. From there, it all just seemed as simple as breathing.
Though not nearly as boring.
“You’re probably well aware by now of what’s been going on.” Ren’s voice continued to echo
through the room. “If you were to look at the list of player names on your comms, you’d be quick
to notice two very green and very ugly-looking names still on that list.”
“What an eyesore.” Impulse voiced.

“Exactly.” Ren agreed. “I say it’s about time we take them down.”
Tango once again tuned most of the dog hybrid’s words out as he proceeded to pull Jimmy in
closer. The other let out something between a moan and a whimper at the increased contact. Tango
swallowed the noise greedily, a thrill running up his spine upon hearing some form of confirmation
that he was making his partner feel good.
“—We can all work together on this, show them the true power of the red-lives, because I’m gonna
tell you right now, Grian and Scar have had it far too good for far too long—“
Tango ran a hand up his boyfriend’s upper back between his wings, causing him to moan loudly.
“Oh for the love of-“
The blaze opened his eyes just slightly, peering off to the side at a very annoyed-looking Ren.
“Could you two stop sucking face for just five minutes and help me explain what’s going on??”
While Tango was still weighing out the pros and cons of actually bothering to give out a reply in
that moment, Jimmy was apparently much more polite and had seemingly already decided to give
one himself. Much to the blaze’s disappointment, he felt the other’s tongue leave his mouth as he
pulled away sloppily, the expression he shot at Ren being one of blissed-out confusion.
“Hm?” Jimmy hummed softly, his flushed face smiling giddily.
Ren rolled his eyes. “Unbelievable.” He said, pinching the bridge of his nose. Tango then noticed
that all other eyes in the room were on him and Jimmy.
Huh. Well, maybe they were a bit less discreet than they had hoped to be. In fact, Tango wasn’t
entirely sure how they even got to this point in the first place. All he remembered was them
heading over to Bdubs and Impulse’s place for a meeting, picking a random corner in the room to
kiss in while they waited for everyone to show up, and then perhaps things might have escalated a
bit from there without them realizing. But how were they suppose to have noticed that?
“Yeah you guys.” Tango heard Bdubs speak up suddenly. He noticed the man’s head was resting
on his own soulmate’s shoulder as the rest of his upper-body remained affectionately wrapped
around one of his arms. “Real classy.”
Ren shot his head up at him. “You don’t get to be mad at them like the rest of us do!” He
continued to argue.
“Yeah.” Bigb said, nodding his head. “You both have been overly-affectionate with each other
since day one.”
Bdubs frowned. “It’s not my fault Impulse’s face is so kissable!” He said, leaning in even closer.
“Ugh. I do not need to know the details, let alone see them.” Ren continued. He then turned to Etho
and Joel, who had been standing casually by the entrance. “At least you two have been acting
normal with each other.”
Tango noticed Etho’s eyes begin to widen at the same time that Joel shot his gaze off to the side,
pulling awkwardly at the hem of his shirt.
“Heh, yeah…” Joel sputtered out.
Etho cleared his throat. “Totally. Totally…”
Had Tango cared enough, he might have dissected that reaction from the two a little more, but he
didn’t.
Instead, he looked at Jimmy again, who’s slightly swollen lips were now more appealing to him
than ever. Tango grinned, licking his own lips and diving in for seconds with zero hesitation. His
boyfriend, while somewhat surprised, responded in kind, going right back to disregarding
everything that had just been said. By the time Ren had turned around to look at them again, they
were already right back where they’d left off.
“Oh my god- are you serious??” the man raised his voice again, though this time, neither of them
stopped to pay him any mind.
“Okay, you know what?” Ren grit, making a swaying motion with his hands. All Tango heard was
the motion of him placing what was probably a heavy item on the ground before the sound of
multiple loud gasps and yells filled his ears. Only then did both him and Jimmy pull away from
each other to see a large stack of TNT placed in the center of the room. Ren, meanwhile, now had a
cocky grin plastered to his face.
“Thanks for a great season guys. I’ll see you all again soon!”
Immediately, Tango felt Jimmy backing away, dragging him with him as he shielded part of his
body with his arm.
“Ren!!”
Another voice came from the group. “Ren, I swear to god—!”
The man only chuckled, holding both his hands up for everyone to see. “Relax.” He said,
destroying the TNT as quickly as he’d placed it. “I’m just messing with you all.”
The room went completely quiet.
“Do I have your attention now though?”
Cautiously, everyone nodded, him and Jimmy included.
“Good.” Ren continued, folding his arms casually. “Now, Tango, if you don’t mind going over the
plan once more…”
Things were quiet. Too quiet.
Not to mention, Tango felt almost too comfortable given the position he was laying in. No one
curled up under him, no head to rest his chin on; all the same, there was no sleeping person pinning
down his arm, nor was there a weight leaned up against his side. It was just him. Only him.
He hated it.
Tango couldn’t tell what hour in the day it was, and he didn’t care. Of course, the first thing he
thought to do was check on Scott and see if he was still sleeping. He turned the corner and sure
enough, he was rested peacefully, just as he always was. Tango was glad he was still getting some
rest, even if it was only a little. But at the same time, he cursed the fact that he always seemed to
wake up before him. Especially now, when all he could think about doing in order to kill time was
watch Scott sleep some more.
Like a creep.
Tango noticed the man had found something else to curl into as a substitute for his sweater. Scott
lied there, tensely holding a spare pillow up against his body after having apparently kicked the
blanket off his legs yet again.
The blaze stepped closer, even as every signal in his brain screamed at him not to. He looked at the
other’s hair, noticing that there were still a few stray blades of grass in it, probably from when they
were both laying down in the garden. He felt the urge to brush them away. To gently comb his
hand through the cyan locks until they were neat and even.
Tango did nothing. Instead, he frowned, shaking his head slightly to clear his thoughts. He needed
to stop thinking like this. It was pathetic. What would Jimmy think of him if he saw how he was
acting? Maybe he wouldn’t be mad at him, given how he still felt about Scott himself, but he
would still be upset, not to mention confused, just like he was. Maybe even a little scared?
After all, Tango knew he was terrified.
The blaze forced himself to turn away, peeling his eyes off the sleeping beauty as he threw his
sweater on and headed out the back door and into the garden to distract himself.
Like any average morning on this server, he went through the motions of setting up a furnace,
heating up some food, all the usual things. He left Scott’s portion where it was so as to keep it
warm and sat down at the gazebo to eat his food. All in all, Tango really was glad they’d built this
thing. It was like a little island of peace in an ocean of chaos. Somewhere they could go to to relax
and not think about everything that was going on with their friend group, if only for a little while.
But in that moment, the garden also served as a momentary escape from Scott. Not that Tango
wanted to be away from him, of course, but he needed to be. What he was feeling for him now—he
wasn’t sure what exactly it was, but it wasn’t okay. And like most of the problems he’d faced in
between Double Life and now, he didn’t exactly know what to do about this one.
Well, perhaps he could just try the ‘Etho’ method for now—avoid the person he wanted to be
around so badly until it killed him.
Etho… Had he ever gone back to the lighthouse? Was Cleo still all alone?
Tango paused his breakfast to pull out his comm, fully ready to message Cleo when something
caught his eye that nearly made him drop the device on the ground.
Not one, not two, but three people had died last night. Four, if he were to count Scott’s death.
Quickly, the blaze began to skim through the flurry of messages that had come in starting from
when Joel had attacked him, only catching about every other line as he went.
<LDShadowLady> Joel?
<LDShadowLady> Joel please come back
<LDShadowLady> This was my fault too. Please don’t take it out on Etho
Tango was slain by Smallishbeans
Smajor1995 died
<LDShadowLady> JOEL??
<PearlescentMoon> Uh—what did you DO??

<PearlescentMoon> You can’t just kill people on green! What are you doing??
Smallishbeans was slain by Renthedog
PearlescentMoon died
<Grian> EXCUSE ME??
BdoubleO100 blew up
Etho died
bigbst4tz2 was slain by BdoubleO100
GoodTimesWithScar died
Tango was speechless, and judging by the lack of message history that came after that last death,
everyone else seemed to be too.
He sat there, continuing to stare at the messages and contemplate what exactly might have
happened. Eventually, he came to a handful of messy conclusions. Could they have been way off to
what really happened? Probably. But they were the best he could come up with given the few
pieces of information that he had.
Firstly, Ren’s kill must have been purely casual. Nothing personal, just a recently-turned
bloodthirsty red-life who happened to come across a lone player walking about in the woods at
night without either of his teammates with him. Attacking Joel would have been a no-brainer.
Then, there was Bdubs. Most likely another bloodlust kill from Bigb, considering the message that
came next. What probably happened was that Bigb had done the same thing as Ren in having taken
advantage of Impulse being down one teammate due to Martyn’s death and without another due to
Ren being out on his own kind of hunt. Perhaps Bigb simply went for placing a TNT trap
somewhere within the Scyscraper? Although from the looks of it, he hadn’t expected Bdubs to still
be there with Impulse. Nor did he anticipate him finding him, fighting back, and phantom killing
him in return, hence Scar’s follow-up death message.
Then of course, there was Joel’s kill. Him and Etho may have been the only other people on the
server as of right now who knew the exact context behind Joel’s kill and how it played out. Tango
wondered if anyone else knew by then, or if Joel may have even gone back to Lizzie that night and
tried to talk to her again.
All that aside, one thing was very apparent to Tango as of right now. There were now two new red-
lives on the server, Pearl (also infamously known as the Scarlet Pearl) and Scar (need he say
more?).
This was not good…
Before the blaze could dwell on what this meant any more, he heard the sound of the back door
open and close. He didn’t need to turn around to know it was Scott.
Footsteps made their way up to where he was sitting. Still, Tango tried his best not to look at the
other. After what he’d done last night… what he’d felt—how could he?
Scott sat down next to him. “Morning.” He spoke, voice as calming and familiar as ever to Tango.
“Are you feeling alright?”
Tango nodded, still refusing to look at him. “I am.” He replied. “Thanks.”
There was an awkward pause after that. Tango knew they must have both been thinking about the
same thing.
As if reading his mind, Scott went to speak again.
“A lot happened yesterday.”
Tango was quick to change the subject, not entirely sure if he wanted to continue their conversation
from last night just yet.
“I’ll say.” He answered strongly. “You check your comm yet? People have been dying all over the
place—“
“I don’t care about any of that right now.”
Tango froze. Scott’s words were firm, but they weren’t cold. In fact, he sounded comforting,
concerned even. No less so than he had the night before.
Tango swallowed. “Scott—“
“Tango…” Scott breathed. And only then did the blaze finally snap and face him. Scott was
looking back at him, tired as usual, beautiful as ever, pupils still that haunting shade of yellow that
Tango continued to feel entirely at fault for. But what continued to stick out in that moment, we’re
the few blades of grass still trapped in Scott’s hair that he had yet to notice.
Tango realized he was pleading with him. He wouldn’t force him to tell him anything, god knew
he regretted it the first time, but Scott also understood that he wouldn’t be able to help him if he
knew nothing. Tango knew that just as well. He knew that they were done keeping secrets between
each other. At least, for the most part…
He wasn’t entirely sure if telling Scott what happened last night would be right. After all, he’d be
doing something similar to what Etho did in spilling Joel’s secret. But perhaps he could still hint at
it? Maybe even let Scott—as clever as he was—put the pieces together on his own?
The blaze swallowed nervously. “I ran into Etho and Joel last night, while you were asleep.” He
gripped at the sides of the bench they were sitting on, biting his lip anxiously. “You remember that
whole thing about Joel that we ended up talking about with Cleo yesterday? That thing that she had
suspected about him and Etho?”
Scott raised an eyebrow at his crypticness, but nodded along, letting him continue regardless.
“—And you know how him and Etho had met up yesterday while we were in the nether? How Joel
had apparently told him ‘everything’?”
Scott didn’t nod this time, only stared at him with a curious look as if gears were actively turning in
his head.
Tango let a deep breath out slowly. “Scott…” He spoke with finality. “I think I know what might
have been in that note that Etho gave to Lizzie.”
And just like that, the perplexed look was gone, replaced with wide eyes and a look of certainty.
“Oh…” Scott said, putting a hand to his mouth.
“Yeah…” Tango replied, feeling oddly relieved that Scott had gotten his message dead on on the
first try.
He really was amazing.
“I know this is gonna sound stupid,” The blaze continued steadily now that they were both on the
same page. “but—what Etho did- when I found out about it- I just…”
“It reminded you of what your own ex did, right?”
Tango’s eyes shot open. Scott knew exactly what he was talking about. He understood perfectly
what exactly it was that made him freak out last night.
“It’s okay.” Scott continued, smiling at him reassuringly. “I get it.”
Scott then did something odd. His eyes moved to look towards some of the flowers he’d planted
earlier. The ones from the bouquet he’d given him not too long ago.
“You understand?” Tango asked, before he realized what Scott was referring to. The flowers he’d
tried to give him a while ago—he’d ran away from him without an explanation… “Shoot—“ The
blaze stuttered suddenly, covering his flushed lower face with his hand. “—of course you do…”
Tango looked away, the both of them saying nothing in that moment.
Then, he felt something touching the hand he was holding to his face. The blaze’s eyes darted to
Scott, who had reached up to touch that same area.
Tango felt his world go still.
Gently, the other wrapped his fingers around the edge of his palm. Tango held little resistance
when Scott moved both their hands back down, revealing his blushing face once more.
“You’re not stupid, Tango.” He whispered calmly as they stared into each other’s eyes. “You’re
not.”
Scott lowered both their hands down the rest of the way, guiding them to rest calmly on the bench
with Tango’s still lying underneath the other’s.
Neither of them moved their hands away.
Fuck. If Tango wasn’t feeling things before, he definitely was now. How could everything be so
different between them now than they were a few days ago? How?? Only a handful of nights ago,
Scott was practically nagging him to stop being stupid. And now? Now Scott was touching him.
He was holding his hand, calming him down, scolding him for even just implying that he was
stupid… and fuck—he was touching him. Because…? Why? Because he wanted to? Why??
Tango’s skin buzzed with every slight movement he felt the other’s hand make while still on top of
his. Could this have just been another one of Scott’s methods of trying to get him to relax? Was that
all this was? Because it certainly wasn’t working! At least, not for the reasons it should have…
They both continued to keep them still just like that. Even when they continued to talk, their hands
remained the same, rested right against each other and for some screwed-up reason it felt right. It
just did.
Tango took in a deep breath, trying to ignore the pounding of his heart in his chest. “So, all those
death’s, huh?” He smiled awkwardly.
“Yeah…”
Tango wanted to assume that Scott had checked his comm after waking up same as he did. The
alternative being that he was just agreeing with everything he said out of an identical flustered
feeling. And that just couldn’t be the case with him, right?
“The only one that still stunts me here is Impulse.” Scott continued.
Ah, so he had seen the messages.
“Ren wouldn’t even be red if he hadn’t done what he did, but why did he even try to kill himself to
begin with?”
Tango shrugged. “My guess is as good as yours.”
“But you know him better, don’t you?”
The blaze looked to the other, shaking his head sadly. “Knowing someone and understanding them
are two completely different things.” He breathed. “Believe me, I know.”
Memories of his time spent with Jimmy, even as early as Double Life flooded his head. He really
did know the difference when it came to such a deep emotional connection. He had known
Impulse. He understood Jimmy.
“Yeah.” Scott replied, a look of recognition in his eyes. “Me too…”
Of course he did. He still loved Jimmy too, after all.
Tango leaned back in his seat, sighing. “I still need to talk to him today.”
Scott furrowed his brows.

“Impulse.” He confirmed. “I waited a day, didn’t I?”
Scott bit his lip, looking downward. “You did.”
Tango couldn’t help but feel as though he’d spoken that phrase as more of a realization than a
statement.
“I’m still coming with you?” Scott asked.
“Of course.” The blaze said. “If you still want to.”
Tango still felt the slight weight of the other’s hand on top of his, though now the feeling seemed
less awkward and more comforting. More natural.
He was about to ask Scott when he might be okay with leaving at—but all at once, he heard the
gate to the backyard swing open from behind them. In an instant, Scott yanked his hand away from
his.
Tango hoped that his strong feelings of disappointment weren’t showing on his face.
“Cleo?” Scott’s voice hitched and he stood up right away. Similarly, Tango turned his head to see
Cleo walking towards them holding her comm.
“Did either of you get my message?”
Tango stood up. “There were a lot of them.” He replied. “Four deaths in the span of an hour tends
to create a lot of traffic in the group chat.
Cleo had reached them by now; she stood where they were by the bench on the gazebo. Tango
noticed how her eyes seemed to do a quick scan of the area before making their way back to them.
He wondered if Cleo was secretly admiring the area but was too sidetracked to say anything.
“Do either of you want to explain to me why Joel felt the need to kill someone on green?” She shot
an accusing look towards Tango. “Did you attack him?”
“What-? No!” Tango scoffed. “Why are you assuming that I’d be the one to attack him first??”
He looked at Scott, who bit his lip. Then to Cleo, who’s eyes went deadpanned.
“Okay, so maybe that’s not too out there.” Tango surrendered. “But seriously, it wasn’t me this
time.”
Once again, the blaze was hesitant to continue. However, he quickly realized that Cleo wasn’t the
first person to ask questions about this, and she definitely wouldn’t be the last. Etho knew, Lizzie
did, she probably told Pearl, and he’d already dropped Scott some hints of his own. Not to mention,
if Martyn had chosen to become a ghost after dying, which he always did, then there was a chance
that even he might know too. Hell, Cleo herself had been the one to speculate on Joel’s lingering
feelings for Etho; she practically knew about this already and was just waiting for some kind of
confirmation on it.
There was no keeping this secret locked down. Tango should have realized that straight away from
how reckless Joel was being the night before. If he really didn’t want anyone other than Lizzie and
Etho to find out about this, then he shouldn’t have screamed it at the top of his lungs with a
potential audience around.
Tango shook his head. There was no going back on this secret. He brought an arm forward,
gesturing for Cleo to come and sit back down with them.
“Let me explain…”
Despite his reasoning, Cleo seemed to disagree with him at first.
“But, Tango, that’s—“
“I know.” He said sheepishly. He knew well enough that by telling other players this, he was
practically doing the same thing that he’d gotten so mad at Etho for doing. “But he was yelling all
this at Etho right in front of me last night, so I don’t think he was all that intent on keeping it a
secret anymore, especially now that the damage has already been done anyway.”
Cleo still gave him a concerned look.
“I agree.” Scott interjected. “I know Joel. If he wanted to keep something secret, he’d keep it a
secret, just like he’d been doing with this one for the past six months.” His teammate sighed. “All
he probably cared about was sparing Lizzie from knowing, but now that Lizzie knows everything,
my guess is that, in his eyes, he has nothing left to lose anymore.”
Tango felt relieved upon hearing that. As horrible as this still was for Joel, at least he could relax
knowing that the man wasn’t the type to care about other people knowing about this. At least, not
anymore.
Cleo suddenly jolted up straight, slamming her palms on either side of the bench and using the
momentum in her arms to force her body upright. Both him and Scott flinched back at this, startled
by their ally’s sudden movement.
“Fuck this stupid game.” Cleo grit through her teeth.
Tango saw Scott raise a hand up to her cautiously. “Cleo-?”
“Fuck—this stupid—GAME!” Cleo said louder, shooting her head up furiously. “I told you both
yesterday that I thought Grian might have been on the right track in designing this game the way
that it is, but that still doesn’t mean it was the right way to go about things!”
They’d both stood up with her by now. Admittedly, Cleo didn’t seem any less determined and
scary from this angle.
“We shouldn’t need an excuse like another Life game to make us all talk to each other—we should
have just done that from the very start!”
Cleo summoned a sword and shield from her inventory, looking as though she were ready to
murder someone.
“What are you gonna do?” Tango asked cautiously.
“I’m gonna run all over this damn server until I find either Joel, Etho, or Grian’s team. Then, I’m
gonna have them talk to each other, even if I have to kick their ass to make that happen!” Cleo spat.
“Etho’s my friend, but him and Joel have been doing nothing but hurting my other friend since this
entire game began and I’m not just gonna let that slide! They need to talk to each other!! And as for
Grian—I frankly find it completely unbelievable that he’s managed to avoid dying for this long
despite pissing everyone off by keeping us all here as hostages!”
Tango gawked at his friend’s urgency, almost impressed by how determined she suddenly seemed.
Perhaps she really had been holding a lot more emotions inside her these past few months than
she’d been letting on about. But even so, there was still just one thing she was forgetting about.
“You’re still yellow though.” Scott said, beating Tango to the statement.
“Yeah.” He agreed. “You break the rules now and you’ll probably be excluded from the betting
pool. All the prize money you would have gotten from Martyn’s death would be gone.”
“Does it look like I care at this point?” Cleo seethed. She then proceeded to walk down the steps
of the gazebo, and back across the garden’s center trail. This time, apparently too vicious to
acknowledge the flowers like she did when she first got there. “Are either of you coming with me?”
She asked, turning back around momentarily.
Tango looked at Scott, who was already looking back at him, as if they were both expecting the
other to answer for both of them.
Cleo rolled her eyes at this display. “Don’t tell me you actually had anything you were planning on
doing today?”
Another look passed between them. this time, Tango could tell exactly what the other was thinking.
“Give us a minute to gear up and we’ll be right behind you.” He said, finally giving Cleo an
answer. The blaze moved to follow where she’d walked down from, but stopped upon hearing
Scott’s voice again.
“Actually,” Scott said, running a hand over the back of his neck. “I think I might know exactly
where Grian is…”
Chapter End Notes
Link to the discord server if anyone missed it: https://discord.gg/M4hhQAZQ
Scott - Yellow
Jimmy - X
Tango - Yellow
Cleo - Yellow
Bdubs - Yellow
Etho - Yellow
Grian - Green
Scar - Red
Bigb - Red
Ren - Red
Martyn - X
Impulse - Yellow
Pearl - Red
Joel - Green
Lizzie - Yellow
A Terrible Fortress
Chapter Summary
Scott, Tango, and Cleo run into Pearl and Lizzie in the nether. When Scar reveals
himself, they chase him down.
Chapter Notes
Scott wasn’t entirely sure why he did what he did. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t heavily
touch-starved and would probably be prone to instinctively cling to anything that had a pulse, but
what he did with Tango back in the garden was a large step up from all that entirely. Or at least, an
enormous step up from what their current relationship was—whatever it was. Not to mention he’d
never tried anything like that with anyone before, trying to hold someone’s hand simply out of
sheer desperation for someone to hold. The only other person he did try that on… was Jimmy.
Yeah, this was a confusing one, for sure.
Scott tried to distance himself from these thoughts by watching Cleo make them a nether portal.
Oddly enough, they hadn’t bothered to make one for their base yet, but Cleo apparently had a
bunch of mined obsidian she was carrying on her and seemed so intent on killing Grian that she
hadn’t bothered to make a portal the cheap way and instead opted for the quicker way.
“Whoah.” Tango said, seemingly mesmerized at how fast she was moving. “When did you get the
time to mine all that?”
“I’ve had plenty of time to do whatever I feel like.” The other responded, not even looking at
Tango as she continued her building. “just thought it’d be handy to have on me, y’know? Could
maybe make a bunker out of it, or even use it to box people in while they’re asleep, heh.”
Scott saw Tango shudder slightly. “What a nightmare. It’s picturing stuff like that that makes me
tempted to sleep with a pickaxe in my inventory.”
Cleo laughed some more at that, dropping down off the top portion of the portal she had built,
landing flat on her feet below it and lighting it instantly. She grinned at the both of them before
waltzing through the glowing purple door in front of her.
Scott double checked that he had everything he needed on him and then moved to walk through the
portal himself.
But by his surprise, he was stopped by Tango suddenly, his hand lightly gripping one of his
shoulders.
“Wait.”
Scott turned around to face him, blinking in confusion. “What?”
Tango just bit his lip as he stared at him in a seemingly awkward manner. Just as Scott was about
to ask the question again, he caught the other beginning to lean in.
“Just…”
The blaze raised his hand, slowly, hesitantly, bringing it up to the side of Scott’s face.
Scott didn’t move.
He faintly felt the other weave a number of his fingers through his hair. He was soft, gentle, and
without really thinking about what he was doing, Scott leaned into it ever so slightly. He didn’t
question it. He only let his body move the way it wanted to in that moment. Towards the heat.
Towards Tango.
And then, it was over. Tango pulled his hand away, a few thin, green strands now in his
possession.
“Had some grass in your hair.” He muttered quietly.
Scott felt his face grow warm. Perhaps he was just imagining it, but he thought he might have seen
Tango react similarly.
“Y-yeah…” Scott stuttered, unsure of how to respond.
“Got it out.”
“Okay…”
They both continued to stare awkwardly at each other. Then, before Scott could say anything
further, Tango moved out of his vision completely and swiftly entered the portal. After another
brief moment of stunned silence, Scott was able to clear his head and follow Cleo and Tango’s
lead. By that point, he could already hear them both talking to each other on the other side.
“So did Etho spawn back at your place after he died, or somewhere else?” Tango asked.
Scott noticed Cleo smile at him as the two began to walk, motioning for him to hurry along.
“Somewhere else.” She replied. “Think he might have crashed at another person’s base, but I’m not
sure who.”
Scott picked up his own pace, jogging up ahead to walk between the two. “Do we have a plan?”
He asked. “Y’know, for if we do find him here?”
“Well, hopefully if Grian’s here, then so are his teammates; they’re who we’re after.” Cleo said.
“You did say he might be here, right?”
“I have a theory.” Scott said, recalling how he’d run into Grian in the nether as he was lingering
near the fortress. “That’s all. But I think it’s as good a place as any to start looking for them.”
“Also a good place to hide if that’s what you’re trying to do.” Tango chimed in. He then looked at
Cleo. “It’s as you said, no one thinks to check the nether.”
It wasn’t long before they reached the fortress. Surprisingly, the climb up to it wasn’t as
unconventional as Scott assumed it would be. A small portion of the higher part was embedded
into the side of a steep netherrack hill. So all they had to do was climb up the hill and enter through
there.
The fortress for this session was huge. That was the one thing that Scott was able to remember
about it. Not only did it loom over all of the other structures in the nether, but the inside of it was
also filled with a maze of caverns and bridges. A collection of twists and turns that all looked alike
at first exploration. Scott wondered how anyone would be able to navigate this mess, but figured
that if one were to spend a long time in here, it might be doable.
It was about half an hour into their search when they first found something interesting.
Cleo seemed as though she were just about to throw out the idea of Grian being here completely,
when they turned a corner and suddenly stumbled upon a series of haphazardly scattered chests
lying about the brick floor.
“Huh.” Scott muttered, approaching the scene quietly. “Well, that’s something…”
He saw Tango furrow his brows as he observed everything. “A chest monster…” He whispered.
“That’s another thing.” Cleo spoke up. Scott looked up to see her holding up a dark red sweater that
had apparently been placed among the scattered chests.
“His sweater.” Tango replied as he walked over and took the article in his own hands, observing it.
It looked to be torn in places and covered in scorch marks. “He must have taken it off cause he was
getting hot.”
Scott frowned. “Isn’t he a tropical avian? I didn’t think they got hot all that easily.”
Tango shook his head. “They don’t. Not unless they’ve been in a hot place for a while. And I get
the feeling it’s been a while for him-“
Tango’s words were halted at the sound of a quiet gasp coming from Cleo. They both shot their
heads around to look back at her.
“Wha-?”
“Shush!” Cleo whispered frantically. She made a pointing motion with her hand as she peered her
head around one of the brick walls.
The two of them followed, tiptoeing over to the side and doing the same. Scott carefully leaned his
head over and to his surprise, was able to see Grian seemingly digging through yet another chest
from all the way down the hall.
The three all looked between each other, and then back towards Grian.
“I see him, but I don’t see Scar or Bigb.” Cleo murmured.
Scott hummed softly. “Maybe they’re-“
He cut himself off as he felt Tango rest a hand on his shoulder and shake him slightly. Scott looked
up at the blaze and as soon as he saw him nudging his head forward, he directed his own eyes to
look at he were he was gesturing to.
There, across the other end of the hall, was Pearl, clad in her iconic scarlet-colored hoodie with
eyes redder than the embers flying around her. She was staring directly at them, sword in hand as
she likewise continued to look between the distant avian and each of them.
“Is that…?” Cleo asked, now looking in the same direction as both of them.
“Looks like she had the same idea that we did.” Tango whispered.
Scott didn’t wait any longer before gesturing to his friend with a hand signal, inviting her over to
join them. Pearl looked at him skeptically, but ultimately, decided to do just that. Scott watched her
check to see that Grian was still preoccupied and turned around, swiftly sprinting across the
opening to the hallway and towards the other end of it until she was fully behind the next wall.
The four of them then moved back down the way that they came, far enough away from Grian
until they were confident he wouldn’t be able to hear them at all.
“What are you doing here?” Scott asked Pearl, now finally able to speak at a normal volume.
Pearl looked at him, looked down at the sword in her hands, and then looked back up, her eyes
narrowing plainly.
Scott rolled his eyes. “Okay,” He said, getting the message that she was clearly there to kill Grian,
same as them. “I guess a better question might be how did you know to come here?”
“I had a hunch.” Pearl shrugged. “Saw Grian hanging around here a few days ago. When I noticed
him leaving the fortress without picking up one of the chests he’d placed down, I figured he’d
eventually come back for it. Looks like I was right. At least about him coming back, anyway.”
“A similar thing happened with me.” Scott replied. “Wonder what he’s been doing here all this
time.”
Pearl looked as though she were about to respond with her own theory, before yet another voice
sounded from behind them all.
“Hey guys.”
Scott nearly jumped before realizing that it was Lizzie. They all watched her in shock as the
woman paced down the long hallway towards them, carrying a weapon of her own in her hands.
“Lizzie??” Tango blurted out.
Pearl sighed. “Liz, I told you you didn’t have to follow me here-“
“I know.” The other responded. “And you’re crazy for thinking you could potentially take on
Grian’s entire team alone.” She shook her head, finally reaching where the rest of them stood.
“You’re good, but you’re not that good. And let’s not forget it wouldn’t be your life you’d be
risking.”
“But what if Joel decides to come back?”

“I know him. If he really wants to talk, he’ll just message me to meet somewhere.”
Pearl scoffed. “Shouldn’t be giving him his space if you ask me.” Scott watched as her grip on her
sword tightened. “It’s not like he even deserves it-“
“Would you lay off him??” Lizzie argued back, raising her voice suddenly. “I don’t need you to
act angry on my behalf! I don’t need anyone to!”
Scott saw Pearl’s eyes soften, her grip loosened.
“Sorry.” She breathed.
“It’s fine.” Lizzie said, still annoyed but now a bit more relaxed. Scott knew to some extent what it
was she’d been going through. All she’d really told him since the last time they’d spoken was that
her husband was being distant again, as if that wasn’t obvious enough already. He did try to nudge
Lizzie into telling him a little more, but backed off after a short while. Having experienced that,
Scott knew that getting anything out of her now would probably be just as impossible as it was
before. And anyway, just as he’d learned with Tango, forcing anyone to open up was wrong. If
they were comfortable enough with him, they’d do it eventually on their own.
Scott tried his best not to worry himself over Lizzie. Instead, he looked back at Pearl, asking her
another question. “So given that you’ve only been red a few hours, I take it you’re not here to kill
Grian just out of bloodlust?”
Pearl nodded. “I’m here because if that lucky little bird stays green for any longer I’m gonna lose
it.”
“Understandable.” Cleo laughed. What say we team up then? I’d like to think the five of us stand a
fair chance against a potential three-person team, yeah?”
“I see no problem with that.” Pearl agreed. “So long as I get the final hit in. You know how it is,
right?”
Scott nodded, once again, noting the other’s red eyes. “Of course.”
“So,” Tango voiced. “should we just go back to spying on Grian? Or—“
All at once, their conversation came to an end as they all heard the sound of loud hissing coming
from above them. Scott watched as a bundle of TNT dropped down into the center of their circle
from a hole in the ceiling. All in a single moment, Scott grabbed Tango and tugged them both a
decent distance away. Cleo had already ducked to the side in a different direction by then. Pearl
had done the same. The only person who didn’t register the hissing noise in time—was Lizzie.
Scott opened his mouth to scream “Look out!!” but it was too late.
The TNT dropped to the ground and a loud explosion flashed before the group’’s eyes. Lizzie’s
body flashed red and the blast caused everyone else to fly backwards, a few handfuls of scattered
bricks flying back with them. They all felt their comms buzz.
LDShadowLady blew up
Smallishbeans died
For a moment, everyone looked around in stunned silence. Scott did his best to try and regain his
bearings.
“Was that one you??” Pearl yelled, likely referring to the comm signal they all felt while looking
directly at a disheveled, but rapidly healing Lizzie.
“Yeah.” Lizzie groaned, rubbing out a sore spot on her head. “That was me.”
Scott quickly put the pieces together. None of them had checked their comms yet, but if Lizzie just
phantom died and Pearl was still here, then that meant— “Grian’s the last green-life then?”
There was a short moment of silence between the five of them.
“Ohhhhh…” Scott heard Tango seethe. “Oh that’s not even funny.” He spat.
“Scar!” Cleo yelled. Scott looked above them at where she was looking to see the man staring
down at them through a hole he mined in the ceiling, his ever familiar smirk plastered across his
face.
“Hey guys!” Scar said cheerily. Quickly, he climbed down from the hole and dropped down on to
the floor landing feet first in the middle of the circle everyone had created with their blown-away
bodies.
Tango seemed to waste no time in attempting to get back up. He took out his sword, pointing it at
Scar as he braced his injured body on one knee. “Scar! I’m gonna kill Grian!” He yelled. “—And
by that, I mean I’m gonna kill YOU!” The blaze added quickly.
“You’ll have to catch me first!” Scar said, shooting them one more cheeky grin before sprinting
down the opposite end of the hall.
From then, it was a mad scramble that commenced in which all of them attempted to get back up
while simultaniously taking out their weapons and eating food to heal. Cleo was the first to heal
fully, entering a running motion before Scott quickly stopped her by grabbing her arm.
“Don’t.” He urged, making Cleo turn her head back around. “He’s clearly trying to lead us into a
trap or something.”
“I don’t care!” Cleo insisted before yanking her arm away and moving to sprint after Scar.
Scott sighed. If this was what they were doing now, then so be it. “Did everyone just take damage
from that explosion?” He asked.
Everyone seemed to either groan out a small “yes” or nod at that. This was good. Now, they could
all fight back without breaking the rules regardless of their color. Big mistake, Scar.
“Good.” Scott said, feeling a small grin come along. “Let’s take them both down.”
Not a moment of delay longer and the rest of them were off. Scott noticed Tango frantically typing
something into his comm as he ran with them, looking back up from it occasionally to make sure
he wasn’t running into anything. Scott heard a ping shortly after, then, he pulled out his own
device to see what the other had written.
<Tango> Grian and Scar are in the nether fortress
<Tango> If anyone wants to help us kill them, now’s the time
With that sent, the chase was on.
“SCAR!” Cleo continued yelling as the rest of them caught up with her. They all continued to run
in the same direction, but Scar was fast, in addition to that, he also probably knew all the twists and
turns of the fortress way better than any of them. Once he got far enough ahead, they lost sight of
him completely. At one point, the five of them split off in different directions, occasionally running
into or moving past each other as they tried their best to hunt Scar down like mice in a labyrinth.
“He went this way!” Lizzie yelled, her voice echoing down the halls, making everyone change
direction to follow where it was coming from.
“No! That way!” Another voice rang out, making everyone even more confused.
Throughout it all, Scott had never parted ways with Tango, and neither did he. It was good to have
the blaze by his side. Admittedly, Scott even found himself starting to feel somewhat exhilarated at
the thought of finally killing Grian. One might even say he was having a little fun with this.
Perhaps so was everyone else.
At one point, him and Tango found their way back to Cleo, who seemed to have gained sight of
Scar once more. He was now swerving his way past an unnaturally large group of piglins who
looked to have all been guided to that location unnaturally. Cleo, of course, went to follow him.
And that was when Scott saw her make a huge mistake.
Scar had abruptly stopped in his tracks entirely for some reason and Cleo, seemingly without
thinking, took that opportunity to swipe her sword at him.
“No wait-!” Scott realized what Scar was doing, but before his words could reach Cleo, she was
already slashing Scar through his torso.
She hit Scar, exactly as she intended to, but the backlash of her enchanted sweeping edge sword
also hit every piglin surrounding them within a five foot radius.
Scar looked at her, smiling.
Cleo’s eyes widened.
“Uh oh…”
Scott watched Scar calmly walk backwards from the chaos that ensued, distancing himself enough
from the hoard to continue his running. Meanwhile, Cleo was now fighting for her life as an army
of mobs came at her. She tried blocking them with her shield, but they were coming in all
directions.
By the time Scott had reached her, she had already taken a lot of damage. Regardless, he raised his
own sword, swiping it all over the place in a frantic attempt to take some of the piglings off her.
Tango did the same, getting a good portion of them agroed on them instead so as to lighten their
ally’s load, but it still wasn’t enough.
What finally did the zombie hybrid in, was when she took a stumble backwards into a stream of
flowing lava coming out of the side of one of the walls. Scott watched as she flashed red before
trying to pull herself back out of the molten mess.
ZombieCleo tried to swim in lava to escape piglin
Etho died
“Ughhhhh!!” Cleo screamed, flicking the remaining lava off of her before proceeding to kill two
more piglins. “He can not keep getting away with this!!”
Just then, Lizzie and Pearl arrived at the scene, shocked by Cleo’s state at first but still quick to
help clear out the hoard of mobs that were attacking all of them. Thankfully, with their combined
help, they were able to clear the rest of them out from the area without anyone else having to die.
Cleo had picked herself back up by then. Scott now saw her angrily scarfing down a slice of steak
to heal her more recent injuries. “I think he’s headed back towards where Grian was.” She muttered
in between bites. “I’ll see if maybe I can beat him there. Cut him off somehow.”
“We’ll go with you.” Pearl panted. She looked tired from all the running and fighting, as did the
rest of them.
At that point, Cleo looked to him and Tango. “Guys? Think you can stay on his tail in the
meantime? Try to slow him down a little?”
“Of course.” Scott answered. He saw. Tango take out his bow, to which he did the same.
“Right.” Lizzie said, waving Cleo over to her and Pearl. “Come on, let’s hurry.”
With that, they split off again. Scott kept an eye on Tango as they both ran down the same corridor
that they saw Scar head for. From a distance, they were able to see him again. He appeared to be
eating a golden apple as a way of regenerating. Scott took this opportunity to get closer to him and
aim his bow, firing an arrow at his arm, making him drop the food.
Scar looked at both of them, seeming slightly panicked by now as he decided to ditch regenerating
fully in favor of running some more. Scott took a mental note that the man must have been on the
verge of starving after all that running. He hoped he was right.
He watched Tango shoot another arrow at Scar, this one hitting one of his legs. Scar winced
slightly and was now limping, but this only slowed his pace slightly. Scott took another shot at his
legs, realizing that that would slow him down quicker. He let the arrow loose and it landed right
where he wanted it to, in his other leg.
By then, Scar had become much slower. Scott, having considered their job well done, began
running after Scar again at full speed. Tango continued to follow him right up until they reached
another turn down an unfamiliar hallway.
This hall, like the last one, was filled with mobs. Though unlike the last one, these mobs were a
mix of both piglins and wither skeletons.
How fun.
“There’s like a million skeletons and hoglins through there.” Tango said worriedly as he stopped to
catch his breath.
“Appears so.” Scott breathed.
Tango turned to him, staring at him intently. “I won’t let you die.” He said. “Not again.”
Scott smiled. “I know.” He replied.
I trust you.
Without another word needing to be exchanged, they both proceeded to run down the stretch of
hallway as quickly as they could. Apparently, so did Scar, as he tried his best to dodge the
skeletons on his way to the exit. The piglins weren’t agroed on him, so he had the advantage, but
even still, Scar seemed to be adamant on sacrificing a good deal of health in order to make it past
the skeletons as quickly as possible without having to stop and fight any. He must have been
hoping that the more mobs he left behind, the more time it would take for them to get through.
He was wrong.
Him and Tango fought their way through as a team, working as if they could read each other’s
minds. Scott made sure to keep an eye on his teammate and vice-versa. The few times they did
stop to speak were simply to alert the other.
“Cover me!”
“Behind you!”
“Tango, duck!”
It was a strenuous fight, but not a scary one. Not when they had each other.
It wasn’t long before they’d cleared the majority of the mobs out of the way, just enough for them
to get through and sprint into a clearing down the next hallway. By then, they could just barely see
Scar as he swerved down a final path. Things were beginning to look a bit more familiar through
this area and Scott knew for sure that Cleo had been right. Scar was heading back to Grian.
The two continued to follow him, if a bit more cautiously than before. After all, it was likely that
Scar had assumed they were either dead or still dealing with mobs. But boy was he wrong.
Scott peered his head past the wall they were both behind. There, he saw Scar, frantically talking to
an equally anxious-looking Grian.
“Shoot. I didn’t think there’d be five of them here.” Scar said nervously.
“Yeah,” Grian agreed. “we need to go-“
“Hello, Grian.” Cleo’s voice rang as she turned around a separate corner. Scott arched his head
over and saw that both her and Lizzie had revealed themselves, brandishing their weapons
menacingly. “Long time no see.”
Both Scar and Grian’s eyes widened. Scar’s first instinct seemed to be to grab his teammate’s hand
and try to run down the opposite, unblocked end of the hallway just as he’d been doing this entire
chase, but little did Scar know, that him and Tango were blocking that exit as well.
“Nowhere to run now.” Scott smirked, emerging from behind the brick wall with Tango as they
both pointed their own weapon’s in his face.
Now, the pair seemed even more panicked. In a last ditch effort, they both tried to run out the only
remaining exit left. And they nearly got through it, before locking their eyes onto a large stack of
TNT planted on the other side of the right wall, as well as a scarily eager Pearl behind the left wall,
who imitated Scar’s own previously cheeky smile as she held up a bow with a flaming arrow
attached to it.
“This one’s for you, Jim.” Pearl grinned and shot the arrow between the duo’s heads, setting off
the TNT placed on the other side of the exit. The two hardly had any time to think before a white
flash and loud ‘BOOM’ noise filled the room.
The dust settled just as quickly as it had came and what remained was a mess of smoking, scattered
bricks, a variety of scattered items, two missing bodies, and two separate pings on everyone’s
devices.
Scott pulled his comm out, confused at first.
GoodTimesWithScar blew up
Grian died
Grian blew up
GoodTimesWithScar died
“Is- is that even possible??” Cleo stuttered, reading the messages and likely contemplating how
two teammates could cause each other’s deaths at the exact same time.
“Apparently it is…” Lizzie muttered, sounding equally confused.
But Scott didn’t care that it was possible. He was just glad it was done. God—it was finally done!
What in the world even let Grian get away with being green for so long? Scott may never know,
but he was glad he’d finally been gotten. That he’d finally achieved some form of revenge on the
guy for trapping them all here!
Scott put his comm back in his pocket. “Finally…” He said, letting out a long and tired sigh.
“Finalyyyyy-!!” Tango yelled, much more excitedly than Scott had. He really had no idea how the
blaze could still have the energy to yell after all that running, but Scott was happy for it. He was
happy that Tango was happy.
“Did that actually just happen?? That was insane!!” Tango jumped, continuing to yell. “You were
amazing back there!” He said, sending Scott into a fit of laughter as he went to ecstatically shake
his tired body by the shoulders. “We all were!”
“Oh. My. Godddd—! ” Scott laughed. He didn’t seem to be the only one who was in a good mood
over this. From the corner of his eye, he could see Cleo and Lizzie high-fiving right before Pearl
dragged herself over to them only to collapse into both of their arms in a lazy hug.
Once the celebrations died down a bit, those in the group who still had enough energy left in them
to walk helped themselves to what remained of Grian and Scar’s things. Scott and Pearl,
meanwhile, sat with their backs up against one of the walls as they waited to regenerate.
“Here.” Scott heard Tango say from a distance. He turned his head in time to see his teammate toss
a golden apple at him, which he caught easily.
“You guys definitely need it more than me.”
Scott smiled at Tango in thanks and pulled out a clean axe that he steadily used to cut the apple in
half. He handed one end to Pearl, which she held up in sign of a toast.
“Cheers.” She laughed. Scott humored her, bumping his slice against hers. “To finally killing that
pesky bird.”
She ate the apple eagerly, clearly very hungry. Scott was hungry too, but in that moment, all he
could do was stare at the piece as his mind registered what Pearl had said.
…Why did he still want to kill Grian?
As cryptic and annoying as the avian’s previous comments towards him were, he was still
completely right. He’d been mad at Grian for forcing him to hang around the person he hated the
most, but now, he didn’t hate him at all. He liked Tango, cared about him, was happy when he was
around him… Maybe it still made sense to be peeved at the guy for tricking him the way that he
did, but setting that aside, what real reason did he have to still be mad at Grian? Could he even say
now, after everything that had happened, that he wished he’d never agreed to come back for
another game? Did he even still regret it?
Did he regret ever getting to know Tango?
“Hey, what’s that?” Lizzie said, drawing both Scott and Pearl’s attention back over to their
teammates.
Scott saw Tango looked to the spot on the ground that Lizzie was pointing to. “Looks like a-“
The blaze promptly cut himself off, eyes going wide.
Scott felt the urge to get up and see for himself just what it was they were staring at, but luckily,
Tango did the work for him as he slowly reached down to pick up the item.
“Oh.” Cleo said, observing the round, black item that Tango was now holding in both his hands.
“Oh wow…”
Scott’s eyes went wide. there was no mistaking the item for what it was.
A wither skull.
Chapter End Notes
That feeling when you’re playing Minecraft and it suddenly turns into Pac Man…
Scott - Yellow
Jimmy - X
Tango - Yellow
Cleo - Yellow
Bdubs - Yellow
Etho - Red
Grian - Yellow
Scar - X
Bigb - Red
Ren - Red
Martyn - X
Impulse - Yellow
Pearl - Red
Joel - Yellow
Lizzie - Yellow
Time’s Up
Chapter Summary
Bigb and Ren show up to the fortress. Lizzie reaches her deadline.
Chapter Notes
Gonna have more free time for a good while, so middle of the week updates in
addition to weekend updates may be a little more common :)
“Oh god…”
Immediately, everyone in the group shifted their stare from the wither scull to the new voice that
had come from behind them.
“Bigb?” Tango said, staring the other up and down.
Bigb frowned. He looked to have just arrived, possibly having still expected there to be some kind
of fight going on by the time he got to the nether. “Am I too late?”
Tango looked to the ground where all of Grian and Scar’s things had fallen. Then, back up at Bigb.
“Yeah.” He answered. “Sorry about that.”
He saw Scott shrug his shoulders. “I’d say it was nothing personal, but…”
“It’s over, Bigb.” Pearl stated. “Just head back to your cabin. I’m sure Grian’s waiting for you
there.”
Bigb made no such movements. Instead, he simply stood there, still eyeing the scattered items.
“Oh,” He muttered. “I moved out of there a few days ago.”
Tango tilted his head. “‘Moved out?’”
“Yeah.” The other said, blushing. “Most of the reason why I came back for this game and stuck
around was cause I was kind of… pining—over Grian for a while after Double Life.”
“Really?” Scott said, rolling his eyes. “I hadn’t noticed.”
The other seemed to have ignored his comment, continuing. “But I know he doesn’t want me. So
that’s why I’m trying to give him up now.”
Bigb looked around at the items on the ground and folded his arms awkwardly, sword still in hand.
“—And am failing at it, obviously.” He sighed. “I don’t know. I just felt like I had to at least try to
do something helpful after I saw that message Tango sent in the group chat. Just like what Bdubs
did with Impulse after he tried to leave the game cause he was sad.”
All of Tango’s thoughts came to a halt upon hearing those last few words.
Did he just say Impulse was sad? Was that why he was trying to leave earlier by repeatedly killing
himself? How would Bigb know that? But more importantly, why was Impulse even sad? Pissed
off, Tango could believe. Fed up with Grian and his shenanigans, sure. Even homesick he would
buy. But sad? What happened? Did he only just start to feel this way recently? Could it still have
had something to do with the conversation they had at the Skyscraper earlier in the game even
though his attempt to leave came about long after that?? Oh god…
“I’m sorry, what did he do, exactly?” Was what Tango ended up asking as he forced aside his
many other questions for the time being.
“Tango—“ He heard Scott begin to stand up, even though it looked like it pained him slightly.
“Oh I don’t know the details.” Bigb replied before Scott could say any more. “I just know that
when I went to his base to get a kill in, I saw him crying into his boyfriend’s chest.”
Tango’s entire body went stiff.

“What?”
“He looked really upset…” Bigb finished, a concerned tone to his voice.
Before the blaze could ask any more questions, Scott was speaking up again.
“Okay—“ He said, voice somewhat louder now as he quickly changed the subject in its entirety.
“Relationship drama aside, what was Grian doing with a wither scull?”
Bigb’s eyes went wide, looking to the scull that he seemingly just realized Cleo was still holding.
“Uhhhh… I don’t know?”
Everyone seemed to focus back on the scull now, but all Tango wanted to do was change the
subject back to Impulse. He had so many other questions…
“Oh I think you do.” Cleo spoke, catching the man’s obvious lie. “How many, Bigb?”
Bigb stayed silent.
“How many does he have by now?” The zombie hybrid continued to press, but Bigb only remained
still and quiet, uncomfortably biting his lip as he continued to be interrogated.
“Fine.” Cleo said calmly. “If you don’t wanna talk…”
In one swift motion, she stored the scull away and took out her sword. By then, Scott had also
taken his own out and now stood firmly at Tango’s side. The blaze glanced over to him. He still
looked more exhausted than anyone in this room despite the apple. Picking another fight was the
last thing any of them should be doing right now.
“Woah! Cleo-!” Pearl quickly yelled, struggling to stand up herself. “He’s not hurting anybody!
Leave him be!”
“You know? I just don’t think I can do that.” Cleo replied, looking back at Bigb. “You said you
came here to try and protect Grian, right? Well, now’s your chance to do it. Tell us where he’s
keeping the rest of his wither sculls…” Cleo rested the tip of her sword directly in the center of
Bigb’s chest. “and I won’t send him to red right now.”
Bigb swallowed. “I…”
“—I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
Another voice came down from a different hall. As Tango turned to look, he could clearly see Ren
drop down from another hole in the ceiling before swiftly moving to approach the tunnel exit, a
crossbow loaded with fireworks gripped firmly in his hands. If he had to guess, he’d say Ren had
been listening in on what they were saying for the majority of that conversation.
“Ren??” Bigb yelped.
“What’s up dude?” Ren grinned, situating himself at Bigb’s side. “I’m guessing you also showed
up because Grian was here?”
Tango saw Bigb nod. He was very much beginning to regret sending that message out.
“Well, that’s a shame. I was hoping I could take one of his lives.”
“You still can.” Cleo spoke up.
“What? Through Bigb?” Ren asked, looking between his two friends. “No.”
Cleo shrugged. “Suit yourself.” She raised her sword up only for both Bigb and Ren’s eyes to
widen as the dog hybrid stepped directly in front of the other.
“Hey wait wait wait—“ He spoke frantically. “You guys already killed Grian and Scar. What?
Were two kills not enough for you?”
Cleo shook her head. “Well he’s not telling us where the rest of these are.” She said, lowering her
sword slightly and summoning the scull back in her off hand to show Ren. “So unless you want
who knows how many withers flying around the server, I suggest you back off and let us handle
him.”
Tango saw Ren look at the scull, and then back up at Cleo, baring his teeth and glaring. “No.”
“Then I guess we’ll just have to kill both of you.” Scott replied. Tango looked at him again,
concerned at how dark his words suddenly sounded. The man now had his own weapon
outstretched, looking more than ready to start fighting again despite his condition.
“I’d like to see you try.” Ren growled, turning to Bigb with a toothy grin. Tango felt his heart rate
pick up. “What do you say, Bigb? Just like old times?”
Bigb raised an eyebrow and, seeing as he had few other options, decided to grin back at his friend
and take out his own sword.
This was bad.
Tango’s heart beat even faster. He couldn’t fight Ren. Not when it meant he’d be killing Impulse if
he won. The blaze looked around the room. Pearl had a concerned look in her eyes. Surprisingly,
so did Cleo. She seemed perfectly fine with attacking another person up until Ren got into the mix.
Now, all three of them were hesitant to fight. Especially when taking into consideration the weight
of Bigb’s words. He’d seen Impulse upset. Crying, even. This was just about the worst time for any
of them to kill him through his teammate. Despite how much he might deserve it after making his
own teammates lose their lives, he was still their friend.
Tango wondered just how Impulse might react to getting killed by him in particular all of a sudden.
How would that look on the comms? ‘Renthedog was slain by Tango’. It’d seem as though he’d
done it specifically just to piss him off. And Impulse was already mad at him to begin with! And
he still had to talk to him today!!
“Ren.” Tango jolted, hearing Cleo speak calmly. “I thought we were cool.”
“We are.” Ren insisted. “So unlike what you guys just did here, this time, it really is nothing
personal.”
Scott scoffed at this. Him of all people seemed the most eager to start another fight. Which not
only concerned Tango, but confused him as well. “You think you can take on all five of us then?”
His teammate mocked.
“Well, you do all look exhausted.” Ren replied, pulling back the string on on his crossbow. “And
besides,” He chuckled. “I’ll really only be fighting two of you.”
Shit. He was well aware of what they’d been thinking.
“What’s that suppose to mean-?” Lizzie began to ask before being abruptly shot at with several
fireworks. Her and Pearl had been standing next to each other. This time, she knew to dodge, but
Pearl was still weak from the last explosion, and as such, did not move out of the way in time.
“Pearl!!” Scott yelled in shock, but by then, it was too late. Pearl had taken the brunt of Ren’s first
attack, being thrown against the wall by the blast. As the last of her hearts ran out, her body flashed
red and before anyone could say anything else, Lizzie was gone.
PearlescentMoon was slain by Renthedog
LDShadowLady died
“Hey!” Scott shouted. Tango could see him gritting his teeth as he ran forward with as much
strength as he could muster. Ren didn’t have time to reload, but he did have time to swap out his
crossbow for a sword and use it to slice Scott right along his arm before he could fully close the
gap himself. That’s when the rest of them came at Ren and Bigb with their own weapons, but oh
god, was Tango unsure of himself.
It should have been an easy fight with an obvious victor. It was four against two. Four against two!
But Ren was right, they were all exhausted from the last fight in addition to all the running. Scott
especially, had little force behind his movements due to his regular fatigue.
Not only were they slow and uncoordinated, but they were also hesitant. Him, Pearl, and Cleo were
all uncertain on whether or not they should try and kill Ren, even if it meant killing Impulse. After
all, this was only just a game, but kicking a friend while they were already down? That could cause
some real problems. Ren of course, knew as much. Which was why he knew he’d really only have
to put effort into fighting the two of them who weren’t as close with Impulse: Lizzie and Scott.
And now, with Lizzie gone, Scott seemed to be the only one who was putting in any real effort.
Who wasn’t being held back by concern, but of course, he was still only one person, and a tired
one at that.
Tango couldn’t exactly blame Ren for the underhanded strategy. Had Impulse been one to care
about his teammate’s lives when he was throwing himself off a building? No. In Ren’s eyes, he’d
probably screwed up royally when he took Martyn out of the game just as they were finally starting
to make up. All in all, his actions were at least understandable. And boy, were they working well.
“What are you all doing??” Scott yelled as he continued to fight. He seemed to have become well
aware by now that the only person who was putting in their full effort was him. Tango wanted to
scream in frustration, rip his hair out, anything. He was making him choose. Damn it all—he was
making him choose! Either help Scott or try to spare Impulse. Why the hell could he not choose
—??
All in a second, two swords hit Scott in the head and everything went black.
Smajor1995 was slain by Renthedog
Tango died
Tango sat up in his bed.
“No!” He yelled, as if suddenly being broken free from a trance. He gripped the blankets, shaking
his head at the ground as his breathing picked up once more.
Suddenly, his eyes shot open again and without waisting another second, the blaze leaped out of
bed and onto his feet, now quickly making his way over to the chest where he kept all of his spare
items. He continued to dig through everything frantically, storing items away and throwing things
on until he was at least partially back to how stacked he was before and went to run out the door,
fully intending to make a run for the portal and hopefully, somehow, get to the nether fortress
before anyone else could die.
Tango slowed to a hesitant walk as he approached the portal’s entrance. Then, he stopped outside it
completely. He suddenly came to his senses. Sprinting back to the fortress would take him fifteen
minutes, minimum. Whatever happened during that fight from now on… there would be no helping
it.
He looked at his comm. No other deaths so far. Perhaps they’d retreated? Maybe two deaths was
good enough for Ren and Bigb and neither felt the need to continue fighting? Tango would have
messaged Scott if he were certain it wouldn’t serve as anything other than a possible distraction,
but maybe he was already on his way back? If that were the case, then he should wait for him here.
He wanted to apologize for not helping him fight, try to explain himself, but most importantly, he
wanted to talk strategy.
The blaze was on very thin ice now that he was a red life. Plus he’d have to start killing people
soon if he ended up being unable to hold down his urges. Normally, he’d be good to go for two,
maybe three days if he needed to. Although, at the rate players were dying at now, maybe he
wouldn’t even have to kill anyone at all—
“Are you okay?”
Tango stiffened up his body and quickly turned to the side to see Joel of all people hovering a
cautious hand up to him. “…Joel?”
“Are you okay?” Joel repeated, tilting his head. “You look like you’re about to pass out.”
Tango stared at the other, silent and unmoving.
He was wrong. There was someone he had to kill because of a deal—no, more like a promise—that
he’d made with Lizzie, who was now also a red-life, during the very beginning of this game.
“Talk to Joel before you reach red or else I’ll come to take your final life and knock you out of the
game for good.”
“That’s assuming you’re also on red by then-“
“We can cross that bridge once we get to it.”
“And besides, I wont even have to kill you since you’ll for sure beat the deadline, right?”
“It’s a deal.”
Tango swallowed hard. This wasn’t over. He still had to kill Lizzie and to do that, he had to attack
one of her teammates.
Joel was the obvious option. He’d attacked him just yesterday and was responsible for Scott’s first
death. Even more tempting was that he’d nearly killed him back then anyway, but decided to spare
him in favor of just scaring him away from Etho. And now, of all times, fate had placed him on a
silver platter right in front of him.
Tango stayed silent. He stared at Joel and slowly proceeded to take out his sword.
Joel looked back at him, seeming confused, but not yet concerned. “Uh… what are you doing?”
Tango pulled his arm back and only then did he see Joel’s perplexed expression turn into one of
fear.
Sorry Lizzie. But a deal’s a deal.
He hoped he could make this quick. Before the other could think to move, Tango threw his arm
forward, slashing him across the shoulder. Joel stumbled backwards breathing heavily. “Tango??”
Tango took a step forward. “I’m sorry,” He said sincerely. “—but I think I have to kill you.”
“What the-?” Tango took another swing that Joel barely managed to dodge this time. “Dude, I
know you’re still mad at me for last night, but I just came here to apologize! Could we just—?”
He threw a forward thrust, this time, hitting the other dead on. It was then that Joel dropped all
conversation for the time being and began running instead. Tango was surprised he hadn’t tried to
fight back. Maybe he really did feel sorry and didn’t want to cause any more harm than he did
yesterday. It didn’t matter though. Tango still needed to kill him, get his hearts down to zero and
see if that killed Lizzie. As much of a stupid waste of time this whole ordeal was going to be, he did
make a promise.
They both continued to run, Joel running away as Tango gave chase. The blaze was determined,
but also disappointed. He really thought Lizzie would have met her deadline, even if she did only
fail it on a technicality.
Frustratingly enough, he also hoped he’d be done with all the running today. What a shame…
“For the hundredth time, I said I was sorry!!” Joel yelled again, surprisingly loudly for someone
who’d been running away for ten minutes. Tango had to give him some credit, despite his height,
the man was fast. So fast that the blaze felt somewhat hesitant to take out his bow and chance a
shot at the other for fear of falling even farther behind. So, thus began another long and strenuous
run through the woods, with the two of them yelling back and forth at each other throughout the
entire chase.
“This has nothing to do with that!” Tango yelled back for again, the hundredth time.
“Liar!” Joel had thrown his head back for that one, unknowingly rendering his frontal vision
useless for just long enough for him to run straight into the trunk of a tree upon turning back
around. The man shot backwards at the force of the sudden stop and landed hard on his back,
groaning in pain as he rubbed at the part of his face that got hit. This gave Tango just enough time
to finally catch up with him. Quickly, he got behind the other, raised his sword, and—
“Okay waitwaitwaitwaitwait!! Can we just talk for like, two seconds? Please??” Joel spoke
frantically. He’d sat up and turned his upper body around about as far as it would go to look at
Tango before quickly scooting around the full way, both hands held up in a defensive gesture.
Had Tango not taken at least a little pity on his display, Joel would have already been dead by now,
but considering their position at the moment, it was easy for either of them to see that he pretty
much had nowhere left to run, was down on his health, and on top of all that, hadn’t thrown back a
single hit during the entire chase, nor did he even bother to take out a weapon. Really, even if this
was just a stalling tactic, it wouldn’t hurt to hear him out.
Tango stared intently at the other for a second longer before sighing and lowering his sword. “Why
aren’t you fighting back?”
Joel seemed to still a bit at the question. then, his gaze, along with his hands, lowered steadily.
“Because I’ve already done enough damage.” He replied, his expression clearly one of immense
guilt, though Tango could figure just as much that the guilt was not just for him. “Your turn.” Joel
breathed, now making a steady effort to stand back up. “Assuming you’ve been telling me the
truth, why are you really chasing me?”
“I made a deal with Lizzie.” Tango said, still raising his sword. “Let’s just say that if she didn’t do
a particular thing by the time a certain event happened, then I had full permission to end her for
good.” He tried not to give away too much of what they talked about, for obvious reasons. “So,
that’s what I’m doing. Trying to do, anyway.”
The blaze looked down at his sword, then back up at his wounded target. Then, it hit him. Killing
Lizzie would do nothing. This whole idea was just an empty agreement. A threat that held no
weight to it, not really. Lizzie knew everything now. She may not have been the one to confront
Joel about it, but the same result was reached none the less, sidestepping all the damage that could
have potentially been avoided had Etho not intervened. The only thing that killing her would
achieve would be separating her from Joel and then what? That would only just make things worse
and he couldn’t even begin to picture that scenario with Etho still around. At worst, it would just
create even more distrust between the both of them. Absolutely nothing would have been solved.
Tango lowered his weapon completely, letting out a defeated sigh. “But its all just so pointless
now…” He breathed, looking at the ground. Now, with a clear head, He was starting to understand
a bit of what Etho was trying to do. Nothing would have changed had he not made a move. It was
still wrong, but at this point, he couldn’t be the only one at fault here.
“I know what was in the note. I know you still felt things for Etho after the last game.” The blaze
continued, ignoring Joel’s sudden look of shock. “I mean, what Etho did was shitty and I don’t
agree with it, but you also kind of brought that on yourself. You had half a year to tell her on your
own, dude. What were you even doing?”
The man seemed as though he were about to ask for details on how exactly Tango knew before
promptly deciding that it didn’t matter. Instead, he too opted for looking to the ground in defeat.
“You’re right.” He replied, swallowing a lump in his throat. “I did do this to myself. If anyone was
gonna tell her, it should have been me. I screwed up the moment I first lied to her and this is all my
fault.”
Now, with Joel looking guiltier than ever in that moment. Tango couldn’t help but feel a little sorry
for him. For all of them.
“—And even then I continued to lie, to avoid her as if I’d hurt her even more somehow…” Joel
spoke quicker, his voice shaking. “Even if I was scared, even if I was afraid of losing her, even
when she told me she didn’t want to know anymore, I should have just stopped making excuses
and—“
Tango shot his head up, eyes wide with an eyebrow raised. “Wait- hang on a second… What? ”
“Hm?”
“What did you just say?” He irked. Joel blinked away the beginnings of tears, opening his mouth
again to answer. “I should have pressed on with telling her, even when she didn’t let me. It would
have been harsh thing to do, but it also would have spared her from having to hear it from Etho.”
Tango now had his own mouth hanging open, an expression of utter confusion likely manifesting
on his face. “At what point did she not let you??”
Joel simply shook his head, as if this was old news to him. As if he had yet to realize just how
much of a fucking revelation it was in and of itself. “Around three days ago.” He continued. “We’d
spent the whole day together, did some farming, built that roller coaster, I took her to see a massive
geode that I thought looked cool…”
Tango stood there, completely still as he recalled the events of that day vividly. How happy they
both looked…
“I was trying to get her in a good mood. Show her I still loved her despite what I was about to tell
her.” Joel shook his head sadly. “And then, right as I was about to say it, she kissed me. She told
me that whatever it was I’d been struggling to tell her, she didn’t need, nor want to know
anymore.” He let out a sad laugh. “I’ll admit I was relieved at first, but then I realized that staying
silent still didn’t solve anything, and now…”
Tango had closed his mouth by now, opting to instead stare at the other blankly.
“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me…”
There were two scenarios currently playing through in the blaze’s head at the moment. Scenario 1:
Joel was lying, which given how well his retelling of his experiences throughout the past few days
lined up with what Tango had seen from an outside perspective, didn’t seem all that probable. That
would also be taking into consideration just how quickly he dropped all that information. If Joel
had just come up with all of this on the fly, then that would have been really impressive, especially
for him.
Scenario 2: Everything he just told him was true. Which meant that not only had Joel been
avoiding the problem, not only had Etho gotten himself involved in something that he shouldn’t
have, but Lizzie had also, for whatever possible reason, changed her perspective on things entirely.
For some reason, despite what she’d confessed to him earlier, Lizzie no longer wanted to know
whether or not Joel still had feelings for Etho. So much so that she committed a form of self-
sabotage and physically stopped Joel from telling her.
As if a missing puzzle piece had been locked into place, Tango suddenly understood a bit more of
the context behind Lizzie’s enhanced, almost unreasonable forgiveness towards her husband. As
well as some of the messages she’d sent to him earlier after Etho had already given her his note.
<LDShadowLady> Joel please come back
<LDShadowLady> This was my fault too. Please don’t take it out on Etho
Not one, not two, but all three of the people involved in this drama had screwed up somewhere
along the line.
Including Lizzie.
But why? Didn’t she want to know? Wasn’t that the whole point of this? Had she just been lying to
everyone this entire time? Was she never even planning on approaching Joel about the subject to
begin with?? Or did something grand enough really happen sometime during the game to make her
want to change her mind right in the middle of things?
Tango took in a deep breath, finally collecting his thoughts enough to form sentences as he once
again locked eyes with a slightly scared and still somewhat confused-looking Joel.
“Okay, you know what? How about this.” Tango started, putting his sword away completely. “Are
you actually sorry for stabbing me and killing Scott?”
Joel blinked once before slowly nodding. “I am.” He admitted. “I know you were only trying to
protect your ally and I wasn’t thinking straight. So yes, I am sorry.”
“Apology accepted.” Tango smirked, now in a slightly calmer state. “—Do you want to know how
you can make it up to us?”
Chapter End Notes
Scott - Yellow
Jimmy - X
Tango - Red
Cleo - Yellow
Bdubs - Yellow
Etho - Red
Grian - Yellow
Scar - X
Bigb - Red
Ren - Red
Martyn - X
Impulse - Yellow
Pearl - Red
Joel - Yellow
Lizzie - Red
The Plan
Chapter Summary
Everyone in the nether, along with Tango, form a plan to finally get Lizzie, Joel, and
Etho all in the same place.
Chapter Notes
Notes: Short chapter this time. Next one will be pretty long tho :)
“What the hell is wrong with you??” Scott yelled angrily. He had taken a large step back the
moment he saw Tango vanish.
Idiot. He’d been so determined to phantom kill Ren, so eager to jump at a chance of killing Impulse
for good if it meant keeping Tango from seeing him for just a little bit longer… If anyone were to
ask him why he felt the need to stave off Tango interacting with his ex for so long, he’d tell them it
was so that the argument they had earlier in the game wasn’t brought up, so that Tango wouldn’t
find out he lied to him. In part, all that was still true, but Scott knew the real, much bigger reason
why he was so desperate to keep them apart. He’d tried his best in recent days to drop the habit he
had of lying to himself ever since Jimmy died and to his horror, his attempts at this were actually
working. Now, with less to obstruct his thoughts and as clear a head as he could manage to get on
three hours of sleep, Scott was able to recognize the real reason he started fighting Ren right off
the bat, and that was that he simply didn’t want Impulse to hurt Tango.
He knew Tango never asked to be protected. Funnily enough, Scott knew that if anything, Impulse
would probably be the one needing protection from him if ever they were to get into that kind of
fight. But still, he just didn’t think he could handle it if the other got hurt emotionally, or in any
way for that matter, especially if the result of that damage stemmed from his own doing. He was
the one who antagonized Impulse. If Impulse deflected that anger onto Tango, it would be his
fault, and for some reason, Scott couldn’t stand that idea.
Everyone had pulled back by now. It seemed as though two deaths in their group were enough to
get Ren and Bigb to hesitate momentarily. Killing three people really would be overkill at this
point, even more so considering that the group they were fighting wasn’t attacking them anymore.
Scott grit his teeth, angry that he wasn’t even able to get one kill in. “What’s wrong with all of
you??” He repeated, trying his best to demonstrate that his anger and confusion was, in fact,
directed at all of them. Why was Ren so hell-bent on killing people? Why weren’t the people he
was suppose to be allied with helping him??
Ren seemed to flinch instinctively at his tone. Scott noticed him raising his sword back up slightly.
“Oh for fucks sake Ren. I know you get really bloodthirsty as a red, but could you just chill out for
a second?” Cleo bit.
Ren paused, sighing before lowering his weapon once more. Now, everyone seemed to be at a
standstill.
Cleo appeared to relax at that and turned to Scott, a tinge of sympathy reflecting in her eyes. “I’m
sorry Scott, but I just don’t think it’d be such a good idea to kill Impulse right now.”
Scott’s eyes widened. He looked between Cleo and Pearl respectively.
“Yeah.” Pearl added, sheepishly avoiding his gaze before opting to glare at Ren more fiercely.
“And speaking of, Ren, I know you’re both probably not on the best of terms as of now, but what
the heck? Impulse is clearly upset about something much more real and serious than a game and
you’re just out here getting into fights and risking his life like its nobody’s business!”
“I know it’s petty.” Ren breathed, now taking a cautious step forward. “But I’m just so mad at him
for forcing Martyn out of the game. I mean, you should have seen him. It was as though he just
didn’t give a damn about anyone other than himself!”
Scott could tell the tone in the room had shifted greatly by now. No one seemed to be in the mood
to fight anymore. Honestly, neither did he.
“He seemed at least a little upbeat and optimistic when the game first began, but after me and
Martyn showed back up at the Skyscraper, telling him how we were ready to try things out again,
all he seemed to be was upset and annoyed over us, as if we’d pissed him off somehow.”
“Lemme guess,” Bigb budded in. “now he just seems sad?”

Ren nodded. “Now he just seems sad…”
A beat of silence passed. Scott saw Pearl make a face he recognized. She stared at the ground,
hand covering her mouth as her eyes squinted shut. She too was upset over something.
“Since we’re all sharing our feelings now, I’m pretty fucking sad too.” Pearl mumbled into her
hand.
Scott furrowed his brows. He tried to shoot her a comforting look, despite not knowing quite what
to reply with. “I think everyone’s sad these days…” Was what he ended up saying.
Cleo vanished her sword into her inventory, uncomfortably crossing her arms over her chest. “I’m
sorry I threatened you, Bigb.” She muttered. “You don’t have to tell me what Grian’s up to.
Knowing probably won’t prevent what he has comming anyway.”
“It’s alright.” Bigb replied quietly. “I’m honestly not so sure I know anyway. He told me where he
hid his first scull, but as for knowing about the rest of them, or even just how many there are, those
things are the one subject he hasn’t talked to me about. “He laughed sadly for a second. “—Other
than literally everything regarding how he feels about the Double Life drama.”
They could all probably attest to that. Grian really did act like a bit of a stranger to all his friends
these days. No matter how normal he seemed act, how ordinary he pretended things were, Scott
always knew there was something he wasn’t telling everyone. Something that was bothering him.
You don’t just experience what they all did after Double Life and be the only one in the group who
walks away still normal.
“While we’re no longer trying to murder each other…” Ren started talking again, looking in Scott’s
general direction. “I’m sorry I killed your friend.”
Scott all but heaved out a lung at that statement. “He’s not my-“ He started, not quite able to find
the words to reply, or if there was even a word that existed that could accurately describe his and
Tango’s relationship. “We’re not- He’s not my friend per say—“
“Really?” Ren laughed. “Then why did you assume I was referring to Tango and not Lizzie?”
Whatever words Scott was about to say next were now caught in his throat, unable to escape while
his entire body froze in place.
“Oh.” Cleo began grinning at him, then, laughing. “Ohoho!!”
Scott felt his cheeks flush.
Not this again…
“He really got you there dude.” Bigb snickered. Scott just put a hand to his face and sighed. He still
couldn’t call them friends, he just couldn’t, but everyone did have some right to assume as much.
Even if Scott knew that could never really be the case.
“Sorry I killed Lizzie too, by the way.” Ren added once some of the laughing died down.
“She’ll probably be fine.” Pearl smiled bleakly. “Losing this game has been the least of her
worries, believe me.”
Cleo’s smile seemed to also shift a bit at this. All of theirs did. They all knew by now what Lizzie
had been going through since Double Life. It was no easier for them to digest now than it had been
at the start of things.
“It’s funny…” Cleo said, shaking her head. “After this, assuming I managed to kill Grian before he
killed me, I was gonna go find Joel, or maybe even Etho and try to make them talk things out with
Lizzie.”
Scott was about to respond, to tell her that it wasn’t too late for them to try doing something like
that, but before he could say anything, Bigb spoke up again.
“Sound’s like a better idea than what Etho’s been doing.”
Everyone turned to look at him. Scott in particular raised an eyebrow at this. “And just how would
you know what he’s been doing, Bigb?”
The man’s eyes widened. He opened his mouth. At first, only silence came out.
“I swear to god,” Cleo rolled her eyes. “if all you’re going to give us is a bunch of ‘uuuuuh’s’ again
—“
“He moved in with me.” The other blurted out quickly.
“What??” Scott tilted his head. This seemed to be news to everyone.
“Yeah… We had a bit of a talk after you guys busted me and Grian trying to steal the enchanter.”
Instantly, Scott recalled how that went. Etho had went to follow Bigb after he’d stormed out of the
room. Some small part of him had still been curious as to why he’d done that.
“Turns out we had a lot more in common than either of us realized. We’ve both just been trying to
wait the game out while keeping each other company. He promised not to talk about Grian, I
promised not to talk about Joel…” Bigb trailed off.
“So in other words, you know where he is?” Cleo took a step forward.
Bigb took one back. “If you even think about threatening me with that sword again-“
“I won’t.” She continued. Scott suddenly felt his comm buzz. No one else seemed to have noticed,
but, thinking that it may be Tango, he decided to pull it out and glance at it briefly.
“—But come on! Please?” Cleo begged. “Him and Lizzie are my friends and they’ve both just been
a complete mess ever since Double Life and if we can just get them—and hopefully also Joel—to
speak to each other about it face to face then maybe-“
“Hello?” Scott uttered as he looked at his screen. Everyone turned to look at him. Once they
noticed he was looking at his device, they all pulled out their comms as well.
<Tango> Scott, Cleo, I found Joel. I’m pretty sure he’s got his comm on silent and is completely
unaware that Lizzie just died
<Tango> You thinking what I’m thinking?
Scott looked up. By then, Cleo had notably read the same message and now looked at Bigb with
pleading eyes.
“Bigbbbbb—“
“No.”
“Please?”
Bigb stared at her, then at Scott and Pearl. Then he sighed and defeatedly put his head in his hands.
“Oh my god… Fine, I’ll go get Etho, but only because I kinda think this could be good for him
too.”
Cleo smiled brightly at him. For the first time in a long time, she actually looked genuinely
hopeful.
“Oh, wow, we’re really doing this then, aren’t we?” Pearl spoke nervously.
Scott turned to look at her. “Pearl?”
Pearl frowned, her eyes darting across the ground. “This whole game I’ve tried to keep Lizzie as
far away from Etho as possible.” She spoke slowly. “And then the one time she does see him for
even just a second, it leads to me finding her sobbing in the middle of our base while clutching his
note to her in her hands.”
Scott raised his head knowingly. It hurt his heart to picture what Pearl had just described, and he
too had his own doubts about having them talk things through, but at the same time, he also saw
firsthand, on more than one occasion, just how horribly things can get in a relationship that lacks
any proper communication. So if this was what was needed in order to get these three to talk, then
so be it. And besides, all things considered, could the situation possibly even get any worse for
these three? Like, at all??
“You have every right to think this a bad idea.” Scott said, looking at his friend. “But you need to
ask yourself, Pearl, was it communicating with Etho that caused that outcome, or the lack of
communication that led up to it?”
Pearl only stared back at him, her concern seeming to waver slightly, but otherwise, her mind still
seemed unchanged.
“How about this then,” Cleo chimed in. “Instead of trying to trick her, you tell Lizzie exactly what
it is we’re planning to do and if she decides not to follow along out of her own free will, we’ll call
the whole thing off.”
Pearl continued to stare for a moment, then, she nodded, appearing to have been convinced just
enough on that end. Scott was glad they were able to reach an agreement on this, it was a pretty
fair deal, really. Although now, they all had to just hope to god that Lizzie, for whatever possible
reason, said yes to all this.
“Okay.” Pearl spoke. “If you really think this’ll help, then i’m on board for now.”
“What do you say guys?” Cleo spoke up, turning back to Ren and Bigb. “Temporary ceasefire just
for the time being?”
Ren shrugged. “I’m down with that. Already got enough kills in the past two days to be good to go
for probably the rest of the game.”
Scott tried to remind himself of just that. That this was still just a game and that Ren meant nothing
malicious by killing off Tango. Still though, he felt a mild urge to pin the dog hybrid down with his
sword and make him pay for what he did. Even if Tango did die due to his reckless desire to kill
Impulse, he still wanted some kind of revenge. It was a weird thought to acknowledge, but still
true.
“Alright, Bigb, you grab Etho and bring him to…” Cleo hummed, thinking to herself for a second.
“How’s spawn sound?”
“Sound’s fine to me.” Bigb said.

“Same here.” Said Ren.
“Cool.” She turned to Scott. “Scott, you go meet up with Tango and Joel. Pearl, I guess I can just
come with you to your base to grab Lizzie.”
‘Assuming she actually agrees to this ’, was what they were all likely thinking, though none of
them voiced it.
Scott saw Ren nudge his apparently new ally in the shoulder. “Is it cool if I stick around for this? I
could tag along with you, dude.”
“As long as you stop trying to murder people, I’d say it’s fine.” Scott spoke up before the other
could reply. Ren casually rolled his eyes at him as if to say ‘no promises.’
They all stuck around for a short while longer just to finalize the plan and pick up the remainder of
Tango and Lizzie’s dropped items. Scott wouldn’t admit it, but he was genuinely nervous about
this plan for more than a couple of reasons. But regardless of what kinds of insecurities he might
have had, he still knew it had to be done. These three had somehow not spoken a word to each
other while all in the same vicinity for literally this entire game and frankly, it was getting to be a
little ridiculous. He hoped this would make some kind of impact on them, or at the very least, leave
the three of them just a little better off than how they were now, which wasn’t asking for a lot
given their current situation.
Scott knew that Pearl’s team had their own nether portal in their base, so given that Lizzie had
respawned back in her bed, that was likely where her and Cleo were planning on going.
“Just remember not to tell Joel or Etho what it is we’re actually planning to do.” Cleo reminded
them as they all began to part ways.
“And what would that be, exactly?” Bigb asked awkwardly.
Scott shrugged his shoulders. “Let’s just call it a mediation session of sorts.”
The other laughed to himself. “Couple’s counseling it is then…”

Cleo looked back at Scott one last time. “I’ll see you all hopefully in about half an hour.”
Scott nodded. “Same here.”
With that, they all moved out. It was strange how on board everyone was with this. Scott had to
hand it to Cleo, when she had an idea there was practically nothing that could stop her from
following through on it. He just hoped this plan would work, that Lizzie would say ‘yes’, that they
could all successfully get these three in one area for at least five minutes without any of them
breaking down, or freaking out, or trying to murder one of the others…
Scott made his way to the portal by his base that Cleo had built. He took out his comm again,
smiling as he sent a sort of message of confirmation over to his teammate.
<Smajor1995> Tango, you’re a genius

Intervention Time
Chapter Summary
Everyone get’s Joel, Etho, and Lizzie to finally all appear in the same place. Six
months worth of avoidance finally rises to the surface, resulting in the most awkward
conversation imaginable.
Chapter Notes
I only realized like a week after posting chapter 46 that there’s a continuity in it, which
in a fic this long had probably been a long time coming if I’m being honest. Just
wanted to say that if the end dialogue of that chapter looks a little different, it’s cause I
edited a short line out. It doesn’t change anything story-wise but I’m sorry if that line
confused anyone who noticed it the first time around. I’m really putting that ‘no beta
we die like Jimmy’ tag to work I genuinely will try my best to make this just a one
time slip-up though. Once again, sorry about that!
Tango had to wonder what drew Joel to here of all places. Now more than ever he seemed as
though he had no idea what he was doing. It took a great deal of restraint on Tango’s end not to yell
at him for even showing his face here in the first place, not entirely because of how angry he was
that he’d phantom killed him the other night, but because he chose to come here and apparently
apologize rather than to go back to Lizzie, Pearl, or even Etho and say something to them instead.
But doing things that made sense wasn’t exactly something that Joel was known for. Tango figured
it didn’t matter anyway. His choices still brought him here, and he supposed that that was good
enough in either sense. After all, if Joel really was willing to do what he asked of him, his decision
to avoid the more important people in his life may not even matter in the long run. His choices
would still ultimately lead him to where he really needed to be, and Tango was ready, no— eager
to get a head start on guiding him there.
“So we’re just gonna wait here for-“
“Yes.” The blaze responded quickly. They’d both been sitting on the grass at the edge of the
fencing surrounding the garden by his and Scott’s base. For what had probably been a few minutes
of awkward silence for Joel, felt like hours of torturous anxiety for Tango. Rather than try to make
conversation, all he really bothered to do was tensely check his comm for any death messages, then
look back up at the portal, then back down at his comm again in a maddening cycle.
Scott was okay. So long as he didn’t suddenly vanish out of thin air, he knew Scott was okay. And
as for Cleo and Pearl, they’d be fine too as long as no other death messages popped up.
In reality, it couldn’t have been much longer before the sound of a horn being blown caused the
blaze to shoot his head up from his device and sigh with relief as he locked eyes with Scott, who
had just stepped out of the portal holding his goat horn in his hand and wearing a cheeky grin.
“Scott!” He yelled, making quick work of standing up and running over to his teammate. He had so
much to say to him that he couldn’t bring himself to say over chat. “Shoot—I’m so sorry-“ Was
what he ended up starting with, followed by a quickly cut off “It’s fine-!” From Scott, which then
delved into a series of apologies and quick, defensive hand motions as either one or the other tried
to take the blame for how terribly the fight with Ren and had Bigb unfolded.
Eventually, Tango’s explanation was what ended up dominating between the two voices. “I wasn’t
trying to let them attack you! I just-“
“Impulse.” Scott stated, a knowing look in his eyes. “Yeah, I know. I’m sorry I didn’t consider how
you would feel about killing him. That was stupid of me.”
Tango bit his lip, shaking his head. “All you did was fight back when Ren attacked us. There’s
nothing stupid about that.”
Scott made a face at him, looking as though he were about to respond with yet another rebuttal, but
instead, he stepped closer, gazing up at the other a little more intensely than usual before speaking
something else entirely.
“I like your eyes.”
Tango nearly jolted back.
“W-what…?”
“They’re red now.” Scott emphasized, reaching a hand up to hover over the blaze’s face. Tango
held his breath. Something about the way Scott was looking at him seemed all to familiar to the
night they’d spent talking to each other after Jimmy died. That instant when he’d done the exact
same thing.
Scott never held his face, however. He still didn’t even now, despite how much Tango was
secretly hoping he might.
“Red was your natural color before, right?” His teammate continued, lowering his hand back down.
“I like them.”
Such a thought had never even crossed Tango’s mind. His eyes were basically back to normal now.
He hadn’t realized it, but Scott did.
“So…” The two of them jumped slightly, breaking their trance to look at Joel, who’d gotten up by
now. “I don’t mean to interrupt… whatever this is, but you said there was somewhere you wanted
to take me?”
Tango tried to ignore the sudden heat he felt in his face (he seemed to be feeling that a lot lately)
and made a following gesture over to Joel. “Yeah.” He spoke, looking over to Scott in silent
question.
Quickly, Scott nodded. “Come on, we’re going to spawn.”
“Oh god, am I gonna die?” Joel asked sarcastically. He looked hesitant to follow, but not
necessarily afraid.
Tango rolled his eyes. “Relax. If I wanted to kill you, I would have done it after you’d run into that
tree.”
That pulled a frustrated groan out of Joel. He continued walking reluctantly.
“So, you’re not even gonna ask how you died?”
Tango saw Joel look to the ground before slowly shaking his head. “No. I don’t want to know.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“If I know what’s happening then that means I’m gonna start caring again and if I start caring
again then-“ Joel cut himself off, letting out a shaky sigh. He still refused to look at either of them.
Scott scoffed. “So that’s your strategy for the rest of this game then? Just wait it out till the
inevitable happens?”
“Seems to be what half the remaining server has been doing for the past few days.” Joel argued
back. “I don’t see why I can’t do that too.”
“I’ll tell you exactly why you can’t do that.” The other spoke up, making Tango jolt. “Because
you’re not even doing it because you’re fed up with Grian, or his weird manipulation strategies, or
this game. You’re doing it because you’ve given up on what’s important. You could have gone to
Lizzie, Pearl, or even Etho to try to fix some of the damage you’ve done, but instead you came to
us? Why??”
“Because I didn’t know where else to go!” Joel exclaimed, finally looking up again. Tango noticed
his eyes focusing in on him, then back on Scott. It was likely in that moment that he began
questioning how Scott knew about his more recent drama with Etho, but given how quick he was
to break eye contact again, Tango figured that Joel either assumed that Scott had gotten that
information from him, or he just didn’t care enough to question it. Either way, he was quick to
ignore his suspicions and go back to ranting. “You’re wrong, by the way. I did try to see Lizzie.”
Joel let out a weak, sad laugh. “ Heh , ‘spy on her’ is more like it, I guess, but only for a short
while. I know she doesn’t want to see me after everything that’s happened, so I just kept my
distance, saw her go into the nether, then I left.”
Tango had locked eyes with Scott upon hearing that, the both of them demonstrating a mutual look
of frustration, as if to wordlessly say ‘could this guy be any more stupid?’
Well, maybe he could. That at least explained why he had his comm off and didn’t know about
Lizzie’s death, or possibly even that she did want him back, as a matter of fact—despite everything.
“I was on my way to see you guys after that. When I saw you weren’t home I figured I’d wait.”
Joel went on. “Ended up setting my spawn on one of your beds out of habit and I guess it’s a good
thing I did, cause now all of a sudden I’m yellow.”
As he’d done previously, Joel continued neglecting to ask who exactly took the phantom death on
the other end of his legitimate death, leaving the three of them to walk in silence for a while.
Likewise, for obvious reasons, both Tango and Scott didn’t bother to enlighten him either. If they
were lucky and Lizzie did decide to show up at spawn, they knew he’d find out soon enough
anyway.
“Sorry for killing you, Scott.” Joel added after the short break of silence. “That’s all I really came
here to say.”
“It’s fine.” Scott said. He didn’t even look at him as he spoke.
After another short while, Tango noticed Scott trying to hand him something—the horn he’d just
blown, along with a few other items. Tango smiled in thanks, accepting the thing’s he’d dropped
previously in the nether and vanishing them into his inventory once more.
“Noticed you had some obsidian on you.” He said, handing Tango that exact item.
The blaze hummed lightly. “Got it from Cleo. Apparently she had a lot to spare.”
Scott leaned in to him as they walked. “I’m glad you’re okay.” He whispered.
“Same to you.” Tango whispered back. He then saw Scott pull out his comm, briefly taking the
time to write something in chat. Without hitting ‘send’, he leaned in even more and held it between
them for Tango to see.
<Smajor1995> Just making sure, we’re on the same page with this idea, right?
Tango nodded, taking out his own device and mirroring the other’s motion.
<Tango> Are we doing that intervention thing that Cleo talked about?
<Smajor1995> Yes
<Tango> Is it gonna result in one or more of us getting killed?

<Smajor1995> Maybe
<Tango> :’)
Scott pulled back, slapping a hand over his mouth to stifle a laugh. Similarly, Tango tried to keep
his own laughter down, opting instead to smirk at the other.
“You know, I’m still genuinely curious to know how the heck you two managed to sort things out
between each other.”
In an instance, the funny moment was over and Tango quickly felt as if he’d been plunged into ice
water. Despite understanding the reason as to why they needed to speak through text, he had still
somehow completely forgotten that Joel was still walking right beside them.
Scott held his own look of panic in his eyes. Neither of them liked bringing up this subject for very
obvious and very awkward reasons.
And mainly, because they didn’t quite know the answer to it either.
“I mean, you don’t have to tell me.” Joel said defensively. “Just know that I’m still just as confused
about where you two stand as I was a few days ago.”
“You sure have a lot of questions today.” Scott spat, composing himself a little better.
“And you seem to have zero answers—“ Joel’s words trailed off. They both turned their heads back
around to see what had him so caught off guard.
There, standing in the center of the spawn circle they’d just reached, was Pearl, Cleo, and Lizzie .
“Oh.” Joel spoke quietly, still fazed by what he was seeing. He’d seemed reluctant to come here
before he knew what was going on, but now —now, Joel was terrified.
Lizzie took a few steps closer cautiously as if she were afraid Joel was going to run away again,
which he very well could do.
“Wait- when did-?” Joel breathed, likely only just now noticing the glowing redness in his
partner’s eyes. “Oh no…”
In all honesty, this probably wasn’t as bad a reaction as they’d all anticipated. Even if it was simply
out of captivation and curiosity, at the very least, Joel wasn’t running away—
“Joel?”
As if on cue, Etho’s confused voice sounded off from the other end of the field.
The second Joel locked eyes with him, he started to back away, like some kind of switch had been
flipped altering his demeanor completely. “Oh fuck no-“
He kept trying to back away. Tango retaliated by grabbing on to his sleeve. He hadn’t intended to
tug him forcefully, just to keep him from bolting for only a few more seconds, if possible.
“Nonononono—“ Joel went on. “I’m leaving; get him the fuck away from me-“
Tango looked back at Etho, who was eyeing Bigb with a similar look of betrayal. “Wha-? Dude,
you said you had something you wanted to show me, you liar!”
Bigb opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He really couldn’t talk his way out of this if his life
depended on it. None of them could.
Tango noticed that Ren was no longer with them anymore. Perhaps he felt as though he didn’t need
to be here for this. Or maybe he just didn’t want to anymore. The blaze couldn’t quite blame him at
all for that.
“I shouldn’t be here.” Etho shook his head sadly, trying his best to step away as well as he shot
Lizzie an apologetic glance. “Fuck, I- I’m so sorry .”
“‘Sorry’ doesn’t even begin to make up for what you did!” Joel spat, yanking his arm free from
Tango’s grip.
“I agree.” Lizzie finally spoke up, her words cold enough to get the attention of everyone.
Surprisingly, Joel and Etho had also briefly stopped their retreat to listen.
The pink-haired lady turned to Etho, her voice even and tired. “Etho, I’ve maybe spoken all of
three sentences to you, know you only from the small bits that I’ve been told and despite that fact,
have still gotten to know you better during this game than I ever have in my life.”
Tango looked at Etho. All he did was blink, but somehow, he looked even more terrified in that
moment than before.
“So far, what I’ve come to make of you is that you’re a selfish, insecure cryptic who shows up
when he’s unwanted and tries to leave when he is.” Lizzie went on. “Now, I’m willing to bet that
I’m completely wrong on that end. I’d like to believe my husband has better taste than that.”
Joel sputtered out something incomprehensible, face turning a fierce shade of pink. “ Lizzie… ”
Lizzie shook her head, now turning it look at Pearl and Cleo. “I went along with your idea of
gathering us all here to talk things out for a few reasons. I was bored, lonely, sad…”
Tango watched as Joel winced with every word his partner said. How ever badly the man might
have thought he’d fucked up, it was probably nothing in comparison to the reality of things,
unfortunately.
Lizzie continued. “I was fed up with keeping everything bottled up instead of facing my problems
like I should have this entire time…”
Lizzie looked back at Joel.
“I missed you.” She said sincerely.

Then, she faced Etho again.
“—But also, I wanted to finally find out just what it was about you that drove Joel into a downward
spiral for the longest time.” She sighed. “I don’t know you all that well, Etho—but I’d like to.”
Tango was stunned. They all were. He knew that these three had been through a long journey over
the past several months. Even more so during the past week. Lizzie in particular, despite how
much she’d been holding herself back all this time in terms of self-sabotage, silence, and avoidance
seemed more prepared now than ever to just end this thing once and for all. Whether that meant
changing things forever, or fixing things completely, or possibly even something in between, she
didn’t care. She just wanted it to be over.
She just looked so exhausted.
Everyone else seemed to pick up on this as well. Joel, at that point, had stopped struggling. Etho
had stopped backing away. Tango looked at his friend, who still seemed terrified at the situation,
yet all the same, accepted his fate.
Etho sighed deeply, looking around the field at everyone. “Is it really necessary to have so many
red-lives on the server here?”
“Yes.” Bigb answered quickly.
Etho rolled his eyes at him. “Do you really need to be here?”
“Are you going to run away again if I’m not?”
He stayed silent for a second.
“Fine.”
Joel didn’t object to anything either. Whether it be from defeat or exhaustion, he slumped to the
ground, sitting cross legged on the grass with his head in his hands. Shortly after, everyone moved
to copy him until they were all sitting in a circle.
“Let’s establish some facts here first.” Lizzie stated, tone still tired, yet composed. “Am I right in
assuming that you went to see Etho while we were all getting our things enchanted?” She asked,
looking to Joel.
“Yes…” Joel muttered, surprisingly without any hesitation. Tango figured his earlier assumption
must have been correct. Joel knew by some measure that they’d all figured out the gist of what was
going on here and that there was no point in trying to hide it anymore, especially now that Lizzie
was fully aware of it too.”
Before Lizzie could speak again, the man was already rambling. “I was so ready to tell you
everything the day before—I was.” He insisted.
Tango noticed a few confused looks around the circle. No one else seemed to be entirely sure what
Joel was referring to, but he was.
“Then when you stopped me, it felt like divine intervention, but it only went downhill from there. I
couldn’t sleep, eat—I wasn’t lying by the way, the morning you and Pearl left to do your
enchanting, I really did feel sick to the point of throwing up. Just for different reasons.”
Joel bit his lip before hesitantly turning to Etho.
“I went to see you because if I held my feelings in for any longer, I felt that it would kill me. I
needed to tell someone I trusted, even if that someone was you.” He then glared at his ex soulmate,
expression going bitter. “What a mistake that ended up being.”
Etho didn’t fight him back on that, only looking as guilty over what he’d done as he did yesterday.
Tango wasn’t about to let him continue living like this that easily, however. He knew he had to
step in here and at least try to nudge the conversation in a direction that might reveal Etho’s true
intentions behind the note and him telling Lizzie about Joel’s secret feelings for him.
The blaze took in a deep breath. “So,” He started cautiously, looking towards his friend. “you
wanna tell Joel why you spilled everything to Lizzie?”
Etho’s eyes widened. Then, he lowered his head, shaking it in shame. “Tango-“
“If you won’t then I will.” Cleo stated suddenly, leaning in somewhat eagerly.
Now, both Etho and Tango’s eyes had gone wide. “Okay, Cleo, hang on a second-“ Tango held his
hand up in a stopping motion. This was not how the blaze had wanted things to go. They were not
suppose to just go around announcing all of these personal things to the rest of the group, even if
they really did need to be said. No, it had to be with the permission of Etho himself. He had to be
the one to say it—
“He only did that so that you would hate him for it.” Cleo finished. Tango put his head in his
hands. Damn it, Cleo.
She threw her thumb back at Etho, rolling her eyes in disappointment. “This idiot thought that if he
hurt you—or rather Lizzie—in a way that you couldn’t forgive him for, then it might finally get
you to stop feeling the way you did about him. He wanted you to be happy even if that meant he
could never be with you again romantically.”
The zombie hybrid’s sheer bluntness caused everyone to wince uncomfortably. Etho still had
romantic feelings for Joel, they’d all been speculating on that for a while now, but to outright
confirm it? Just—here and now? Really Cleo??
And yet, to everyone’s surprise, Joel had been the one and only person to stay stone-cold stoic at
Cleo’s words, his pissed off glare at his ex soulmate still cold and unchanging.
“Did you just hear a single thing I said?” Cleo said, doubling back. “Etho knew exactly what he’d
be doing by giving Lizzie that note. He did what he did out of pure selflessness-!”
“Cleo, does it look like I give a fuck what the reason behind his actions were?” Joel stated bluntly.
Well, if Cleo’s word’s hadn’t surprised everyone enough, Joel’s reaction certainly did the job.
Tango’s confusion was broken only when Joel looked at him directly. “You would understand,
wouldn’t you Tango?” He asked.
“What?”
Joel sighed. “Let me ask you this; if someone you knew hurt Jimmy in a similar way, would you
give a damn about the context or the reason behind it? If their intentions were good or bad?”
Now, all eyes were on him.
Including Scott’s.
No, nonono—this conversation wasn’t suppose to be about him and Jimmy it was suppose to be
about Joel. And now… what? He’d just up and turned the subject over to him? Why?? What
suddenly made him want to go and ask him something so personal? Tango may not have known
Joel’s motive, but he did know exactly what kind of response the man was trying to get out of him.
What situation he was comparing directly.
Joel wanted to know if he forgave Scott for breaking things off with Jimmy in the way that he did
after Double Life. Which—yes, in fact, he did. But it wasn’t that simple. It wasn’t as if forgiving
Scott made him a bad boyfriend… right? And it wasn’t like Scott even needed, nor was looking for
his forgiveness in the first place. All things considered, Tango had made peace a long time ago
with the fact that Scott should be the one struggling to forgive him for his actions—but of course
that was impossible. Of course he could never forgive him for that because he wasn’t even sorry
for it! Not genuinely!!
Tango locked eyes with Scott, who likewise, looked as though he wanted to sink into the ground
until his entire body was hidden away.
You don’t deserve this…
Tango forced his gaze away from his teammate, swallowing the lump that was rising in his throat.
To answer Joel’s difficult question, all he could really think to say was “…I would.”
No responses. Nobody spoke. All Tango was left with was dead silence.
His heart started racing. In a panic, he tried to fill the silence with something else, tried to justify
his stupidly simple answer to what was probably the most complicated question he could have
been asked.
“At least, now I would.” Tango stuttered. “I mean- n-not that they’d even desire my forgiveness-“
He dared to look back at Scott, who had raised a hand up to his shoulder. “Tango-“
Tango blushed deeply, mouth refusing to shut up. “If anything, I should be the one-!”
He felt a tight, but painless squeeze where Scott was gripping. The blaze snapped his mouth shut,
peering into his teammate’s eyes and trying his best to make something out of what might have
been going on behind them. He could have looked furious, embarrassed, confused—and he did, but
there was still something else there. A pleading urgency that reminded him of what he’d been
trying to tell himself for the longest time. What Scott was trying to tell him right now.
You don’t need to tell them anything.
Tango slumped his shoulders, relaxing his body ever so slightly. “I’m being an idiot.” He breathed.
“Sorry.”
He hated how everyone continued to keep silent, but at least now it was a little more bearable. To
his brief disappointment, Scott removed his hand from his shoulder, lowering it back down
towards the grass. The feeling didn’t last long however, as he suddenly felt the other’s touch once
more on his lower back. Scott’s hand remained there, comforting, steadying, hidden behind their
close, nearly touching bodies where no one else would see it. Only he and Scott were aware it was
there. Only he could feel its comfort. Scott didn’t look at Tango. Tango tried not to look at him.
Scott’s hand never left his body.
“Wow. Way to reopen that wound.” Bigb commented, finally breaking the torturous silence. He
leaned back slightly, bracing his body by planting one of his arms on the grass. “I mean, I’m sure
we’re all just as confused as you are on how exactly they came to stop hating each other, but there
were some much better routes you could have taken in bringing up the topic.”
Pearl scoffed, glaring at her friend harshly. “And what? Your current means of it is better?”
“At least it’s more straightforward.”
Tango bared his teeth. “You’re not funny-“

“—I’m not trying to be.” Bigb bit.
Then, things were quiet once more.
Tango wondered what the guy’s deal was. Scott did say he had been present during Ren and
Martyn’s so-called relationship resolution. Maybe he felt frustrated over being reminded so often
about his own drama with Grian that had been going on? He could understand his bitterness to that
extent, but if that really were the case, then why was he even still here? Was it because of Etho?
“If you want to leave, you can leave.” Cleo spoke sternly, taking the words right out of Tango’s
mouth.
Bigb seemed to consider it for a second, before laying back down and deciding on staying put.
Tango really hoped he was done causing trouble for the time being and tried not to dwell too much
on what it was he’d actually said.
“Why did you do it?” Joel asked, after a short amount of time had passed. Lizzie tilted her head in
confusion at this before Joel added some context. “Why didn’t you approach me about this? Why
didn’t you let me talk to you exactly like how you wanted me to months ago?”
Lizzie froze, her mouth formed a thin line and her eyes crinkled. She looked close to crying.
“I’ll admit I’m a dirty liar,” Joel spoke shakily. “but better late than never, right? Couldn’t you
have at least let me try to make it up to you now?”
Lizzie shook her head. “Was that what that was yesterday? You making it up to me?”
Joel said nothing.
“That whole day was great. We were so close to being normal again that I started wondering if it
was too good to be true. If there was a reason why you were suddenly acting different, trying to
make me happy. Then, a thought came to me…”
Tango had been hoping all the unwanted attention he’d been getting today might lessen up a little,
but he was proven to be very wrong when Lizzie faced him suddenly, tears welling in her eyes.
“I lied to you, Tango.” She murmured unexpectedly.
For a second time, everyone, Scott especially, seemed confused as to what exactly was being
referenced. To that extent, so did Tango, at first. Until she looked back at her husband, continuing.
“My worst fear wasn’t that you still had feelings for Etho. My worst fear was that you’d act on
those feelings.”
Tango’s thoughts were moving at a rapid pace. Just what was she implying? Did Lizzie think that
Joel had actually acted on them sometime during this game? Before then? What could she mean—
Tango’s eyes widened. He looked to Joel, who, in knowing Lizzie far better than anyone else on
this server ever could, appeared to have reached the same conclusion much quicker.
“The thing I was trying to tell you…” He breathed, eyes openly scanning the ground in shock.
“You didn’t think I was about to confess anything—you thought I was getting ready to break up
with you.”
Lizzie nodded sadly, silent tears now making their way down her face. “Were you- were you
possibly considering it-?”
“NO!” Joel yelled, now actively jolting upright and making his way over to his partner. He knelt
down in front of her, taking both her hands in his. “I- fucking hell Lizzie—No! I would never!!”
Lizzie bit her lip, gazing into the other deeply as if she were, despite everything, still looking for
some hint of a lie in his words.
Joel only hardened his gaze, his voice quiet, but firm. “I would never. Oh god, the fact that you’d
even consider—Fuck, I’m so sorry Lizzie, I’m so sorry…” He tilted his forehead down to meet her
hands, still cupping them in his own in a gesture that demonstrated him downright begging for her
forgiveness.
She continued her staring for just a few second’s longer, until all doubt, or at least most of it,
seemed to vanish from her mind.
“Oh thank god…” Lizzie breathed shakily, bowing her tired head downward to lean against her
husband’s. For Tango, the worry of having to possibly explain more than a few things to Scott
regarding Lizzie and all the things he’d been up to on Empires during recent months left him
momentarily. At this moment, he was only concerned for Lizzie and whether or not she was going
to be okay. Thinking over everything, she had probably never been okay at almost any point during
this game with a dark thought like that roaming around in the back of her mind. Looking at Scott,
he especially seemed surprised and upset over this revelation. Had Lizzie really been driven to
think such a thing? Given how Joel had been acting after Double Life, was it even that
unreasonable of an assumption to make?
“You know, since I know that the worst version of events I thought of aren’t going to occur, it now
makes the reality of things not seem so bad.” Lizzie laughed sadly, her trembling hands still in
Joel’s grip.
“Is that reality suppose to be that he still likes me? Because I assure you, he doesn’t.” Etho finally
spoke up, grabbing everyone’s attention.
Both Joel and Lizzie looked up from the ground, eyeing the other warily. “But you still love him,
don’t you?” Lizzie replied.
Tango saw Etho flinch at that statement. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t surprised as well. It
seemed as though everyone was in a mood today. A mood that caused them to be more direct and
blatant about things than they ever had before. He guessed it had something to do with how fed up
they all might have been with all the drama at this point. He supposed he could understand that, but
even so, bringing up Etho’s lingering feelings for Joel in front of everyone still felt wildly out of
pocket.
“I…” Etho visibly swallowed, his expression nervous and indecisive. “I don’t know…”
“Etho, let me ask you something.” Cleo spoke up. “If you had been separated from me for six
months, no contact, no messaging, just completely ghosted, how would that make you feel?”
Tango listened in closely wondering where exactly his friend was going with this.
Etho took a moment to think on it before replying confidently. “I’d feel as though I’d be willing to
do anything to see you again.”
Tango’s heart swelled a little at the other’s response. He knew that those two had been pretty close
ever since Third Life and it had been interesting to watch their relationship develop.
“Are you in love with me?”
The mood shifted instantly, with everyone, Etho especially, being caught completely off guard by
the question.
“What??”
“Are you in love with me?” Cleo repeated, her tone unchanging.
Etho seemed to shift around uncomfortably in his seat. “I- I love you in some way, yeah? But not
in-“ He paused, likely realizing where this was going just as Tango had himself. “Oh…”
Pearl was the next to speak up, catching on quickly to the point that Cleo was trying to make.
“Joel? How about me?” She asked, nudging him on the shoulder. “Would you say you’d feel the
same way if it were me instead of Etho? Y’know, minus the physical-“
Joel blushed intensely at the last sentence, stopping Pearl from speaking by placing a hand over her
mouth as he quickly shifted to sit in between her and Lizzie.
“Yeah, yeah, I got that part— christ …” He voiced loudly, face still beet red.
Tango once again cringed at his friend’s forwardness. That was certainly one way to imply that
those two had screwed at some point during Double Life without outright saying it. Goodness
sake, Pearl…
“Shoot, I- I might?” Joel shuttered out, still attempting to gain his composure back.
Cleo leaned in again. “Do either of you think it might be possible that these feelings you’ve been
having may have just been the result of the the way you left things between each other? The fact
that you haven’t spoken a word since Double Life?”
Finally, Joel looked at Etho in a way that wasn’t sad, or spiteful, or upset—just confused, as if he
were trying to recall everything he’d ever felt for the man since the end of Double Life.
Tango thought on it as well. When things really came down to it, he had chosen Lizzie over Etho.
He’d been there to see it, and although his attention had been mainly occupied with sorting out his
own drama between him and Jimmy and Impulse and Bdubs, he did still recall hearing Joel voice
his decision to his ex soulmate somewhere in between shaky breaths and outright sobbing. And it
was a quick decision none the less.
It had taken him mere seconds to choose Lizzie over Etho and for all Tango knew, the actual
decision part could have been made in his head instantaneously. When it came down to it, Etho
could have never been chosen because he was never even an option. There was no decision to be
made. It was always going to be Lizzie.
“You never did return my messages.” Etho crossed his legs awkwardly, looking away from the
other.
“I was terrified.” Joel responded calmly. “I still am.”
“So am I. I- I just wanted you back in my life. I didn’t care how—I just wanted you there.”
Joel rested his head on his hand, running his fingers through his hair tensely. “You know things
can never be the same between us, right?”
Etho’s face fell. He nodded slowly.
“I can’t just forget about what you did to Lizzie. How you used her emotions as some sort of chess
piece to forward what you seemed so certain was the noble thing to do-!”
Joel cut himself off, sighing.

“—It’s gonna take a long time for things to even begin to be okay between us.”
Etho looked up, a glimmer of hope in his eyes. “But are you saying we can still try to make things
that way again?”
Joel shook his head. “It’s not up to me-“
“I’m okay with it.”
Everyone looked at Lizzie, who didn’t falter in her words in the slightest.
Joel’s mouth fell open. “Wha-? Lizzie-??”
“I think I know you a little better now, Etho.” She continued. “If you both want to try things out as
friends this time around, I’ll be alright with it.”
“Please, don’t just say things like that just because you think it’ll make me happy.” Joel voiced,
putting a hand to his partner’s shoulder.
“It’s not just that.” Lizzie responded. “As much as I do care for your happiness, I also understand
that your standing with Etho is now less than ideal.”
Tango frowned. She wasn’t wrong. Especially if that one-sided fight between them that he
experienced in the forest was anything to go by. If Joel really did have any feelings of love left for
Etho, what he had done yesterday must have surely killed them off completely, if not at least buried
them under a near unbreakable layer of distrust. To his distain, Tango found himself once again
comparing their situation to what happened with him and Zedaph. Having Joel feel anything close
to what he had for Etho romantically would be like him trying to feel the same thing for Zed, and
he already knew just how impossible that was for him.
Lizzie continued to elaborate on this exact situation to Etho as if voicing Tango’s thoughts aloud.
“Even if I do forgive you for budding in the way that you did, Joel clearly won’t for a while. So
congratulations, I guess. Your little plan did exactly what you intended it to do.”
Tango saw Joel look away from Etho at this, not confirming his wife’s words, but not denying
them either.
“Can’t say I’d be quite as forgiving if it’d happened the other way around with Joel, though.”
Lizzie voiced somewhat threateningly. “And besides, Joel—at least when he has all of his
memories with him—is someone who I trust very dearly.”
Joel had looked back at her by then, the two of them in a locked gaze.
“I know nothing will happen between you two. I trust you on that.”
“…Thank you.” Joel smiled softly. To Tango, He seemed surprisingly relieved.
“I would still like to get to know you more, of course.” Lizzie looked back at Etho, speaking more
lightly this time. “Perhaps we could talk more some time after this game ends?”
Etho nodded. “I’d like that.”
He faced Joel, who still seemed a little bitter towards his ex soulmate, but in an otherwise tame
mood compared to how he was yesterday. “Maybe. I’ll see how I’m still feeling about you by
then.”
Etho sighed. “That’s fair.”
“So, are you guys cool now?” Cleo asked, snapping everyone’s attention away from the moment
the three were having.
None of them spoke, unsure of what exactly they should respond with.
“Are you at least going to stop trying to kill and upset each other?” Tango added on.
At that, the three of them all gave some variation of either a reluctant nod or a shrug, which was
good enough for him.
“Okay, good.”
“Thank god, honestly.” Scott said leaning back. Tango could tell that he was probably more fed up
with these three avoiding each other than he had been letting on about given how he actually lived
on the same server as Joel and Lizzie.
Once more, when the other’s hand slipped off his back and he stopped touching him completely,
Tango felt as though he’d lost something. Though now, he was a bit more familiar with the feeling,
as well as unfortunately, the understanding that he should not be feeling that way to begin with.
With that in mind, Tango accepted what was happening and tried his best not to think about how
badly he wanted to lean back into Scott.
They all got up after that. Some speaking to others, some heading out on their own. The sun was
beginning to set, so it was a good thing they’d managed to wrap this up at the time that they did.
But that also got Tango thinking, had they actually fixed anything?
Despite how much worse things could have gone—and they really could have gone so much worse
—the meetup still left a bad taste in his mouth. It really shouldn’t have come to this. It had been
Cleo’s idea, and she had been the one to dive head first into all the speculation going on in the
group’s drama as well as some secrets that weren’t hers to tell, but they were all still somewhat
compliant in organizing this intervention. If what happened here today led to some kind of hiccup
in Lizzie, Joel, and Etho’s dynamic somewhere down the line, they would all be responsible for it.
And even then, what’s there to say that this result wasn’t already a slip up in its own right? Nothing
had exactly been ‘solved’ per say. Joel was still on bad terms with Etho, Lizzie still looked as
unsure of things as she did yesterday, and there was really still no way to say for sure if Etho’s
feelings of longing towards Joel came out of a place of love or of simply out of missing someone
with whom he’d formed a strong and positive connection with. It was a messy situation; it was
going to be one for a while, and if how the three spoke to each other today was any indicator, this
was going to quite possibly be a long and difficult road for them all.
But then again, at least they were willing to try it out. At least, for now, they were better off than
how they were at the beginning of this game. At least they finally, finally had some proper
communication going on between them. All anyone could really hope for was that they’d improve
on their own from here on out. Tango certainly hoped for that to be the case, but only time would
tell if they were truly going to be alright.
Etho eventually went back with Bigb after talking a few more things over with his ex soulmate,
who thankfully wasn’t outright glaring at him during every second they made eye contact
anymore. Joel did decide to stick with Lizzie and Pearl this time. Tango figured that was a good
thing, they probably did still have a lot to talk about after today. What seemed to catch Scott’s
attention was when Lizzie had run up to the both of them right as she was heading out. All she did
was offer them a warm smile, and then, directing her words at Tango, told him that she “still owed
him her last life” as per their deal and that if his red life urges ever got out of hand, he’d know
where to find Joel.
They’d shared a good laugh at that, though Tango still knew she was 100 percent serious about the
matter. He couldn’t really blame her for that and if he were being honest, he did still kind of want
to get Joel back in some way for taking Scott’s first life, even that was achieved simply through
chasing him down with a sword again for a comedically long distance.
It was when they had left the spawn area entirely that Scott finally decided to speak to him directly
again. “Hey, can I ask you something?” He said.
“Hm? Sure?”
If Scott were to have said anything right then, Tango would have guessed it’d have something to
do with how the intervention went, or even something regarding that hand he’d kept on his back
for the majority of the group’s conversation (wherever that came from), but instead, he mentioned
something entirely different.
“—Are you and Lizzie, like, friends or something?”
Tango’s face fell. Oh boy, here it was. All the cryptic messages, side-glances, and conversing he’d
done with her was finally catching up to him. At best, answering Scott’s question might be a little
awkward. At worst… well, he just hoped it didn’t come to that.
“I- w-well- we did kind of bond a little?” The blaze started. “Mostly on Empires during all the
times I was visiting—“
“Jimmy…” Scott finished for him.
“Yeah…”
Tango awkwardly crossed his arms over his chest. He and Jimmy always knew that having him
befriend some of the people from his server would involve walking a thin line. Those were
Jimmy’s friends, sure, and he wanted to introduce them to him, but they were Scott’s friends too,
and depending on how aware they were of the specifics of how he and Jimmy came to be a couple,
introductions could either go swimmingly, or very horribly, to say the least. And that wasn’t even
accounting for the fact that all of that had to be kept on the down low, lest Scott find out about it
and start to feel betrayed by his friends even though the situation was so much more complicated
than one could even imagine.
But there was no hiding any of that now. Tango did want to be honest with Scott, but he also knew
that telling him too much at once might be a bad idea.
“Was there anyone else you got close to that I don’t know about?” Scott asked.
Tango sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh, you know—just like, Fwhip.”
Scott tilted his head.
“And Shubble. She lets me borrow her hats a lot.”
He narrowed his eyes.
“ Pix—? ”
“Oh my god…”
“I wasn’t trying to befriend anyone!” Tango exclaimed, waving his hands. “It just sort of…
happened?”
His teammate shook his head. “I’m not mad, just surprised.”
Tango tried to read his face as best he could. From an outside perspective, it didn’t seem as though
Scott felt genuinely upset over any of this. For all he knew, he really was just surprised.
“Honestly, Jimmy was usually the one to introduce me to them. And most of them did not like me
at all at first.”
Again, he felt he didn’t need to explain why Jimmy’s friends, who were also very much Scott’s
friends, might have had some mixed feelings about him in the beginning. But that was a different
story entirely.
“Wait—so that one time I called out to Shelby and instead of responding I thought she just up and
ran away—was that you? ”
Tango stopped walking.
“What?”
Scott turned around, just staring at him while waiting for an answer.
It took him a second, but suddenly the blaze was able to recall exactly what Scott was talking
about. A few months ago, he’d been hanging around Shubble’s base with Jimmy and had left the
house momentarily to go fetch something from the yard. The tall greenery must have been covering
most of his body from the neck down from a distance, leaving only the back of his head visible,
which donned the witch’s iconic hat.
“Oh shoot.” Tango couldn’t help the slight grin that arched over his face. “I think that was me .”
He started snickering just as he saw Scott’s eyes go wide.
“Were you wearing her hat that time??”
“ Yes. ” He laughed.
Scott shoved his head in his hands and groaned, his own restrained, yet still very noticeable fits of
laughter coming out muffled against his palms. “Do you do that often? Wear her hat in particular?”
“A little, yeah.” Tango snorted, gesturing with his arms stretched out. “It’s just so big and floppy
and cool! She gave me one to keep, but I only wear it on really sunny days now.”
“I- I kinda wish you’d turned around back then.” Scott peeled his hands away, letting bubbly
laughter flow in between each word.
Tango’s smile dropped only slightly at that. Despite not showing it much on the outside, he was
still painfully aware of just what kind of reaction Scott would have most likely had to him turning
around at that time. Maybe he would have yelled something along the lines of “get the hell off my
server” or “you shouldn’t even be here”, or maybe he’d just scowl at him and walk away. Whatever
his reaction might have been, Tango knew it wouldn’t have been a positive one, at least not back
then. Hence, why he’d opted to run away rather than turn around and reveal who he really was. It
was just easier that way.
Still though, he loved making the other laugh, even if it meant humoring an ideal scenario that they
both knew to be impossible.
“If it would have drawn out that kind of reaction from you, then yeah, I wish I’d turned around
too.”
Scott slowed his laughter, settling his expression on a flushed smile and happy gaze. And oh god
what gave him the right to look so lovely, Tango didn’t know, but he had the odd feeling that that
image of Scott would probably remain at the forefront of his mind for a good while after.
It grew quiet, and soon, all Tango was able to notice was Scott’s face and the setting sun behind
him that casted a large shadow at the front of him and framed his body in a glowing outline of
light. It was getting late.
His smile crumbled completely.
“Scott?”
The other quirked his head to the side, raising an eyebrow.
“I want to go see Impulse.” Tango pleaded. “Right now.”

Scott didn’t move his body, but his smile did fall and that alone made Tango want to forget about
the whole ordeal and put it off for even longer if it meant keeping his teammate content, but he
knew that wasn’t an option, not when he’d waited this long.
“If you changed your mind about coming with, that’s fine, but this is something that I really can’t
hold off on for any longer.”
The glow in Scott’s eyes faded, but in the end, he turned his gaze downward and nodded slowly.
“Okay.” He replied. “Let’s go and see him then.”
And just like that, they were walking in silence once more. It didn’t take too much of a change in
direction to face where they needed to go. The walk would still be fairly long though, which gave
Tango a torturous amount of time to think about what he was going to say, all while knowing that
no matter how hard he thought on it, he would ultimately come up with nothing.
After a while, somehow, someway, Scott seemed to have picked up on how stressed he felt and
how hard he was thinking over everything, because when he opened his mouth again, his next
words felt more like a distraction tactic than a conversation.
“You know, I think it’s a little funny that Jimmy lost his first ever life in these games to something
that you built…”
In Your Arms, There’s Solid Ground
Chapter Summary
Scott and Tango visit Impulse. Nothing is okay.
Chapter Notes
I blame the lateness this time on ao3 feeling sick. Hope she gets well soon.
“OH MY GOD HE’S DEAD! NO!!” Scott cried out, hands threading through his hair. Tango
stood beside him, trying his best to keep his laughter under wraps and completely failing at it.
Scott groaned in frustration, pulling his hands down from his head and turning to the blaze to shoot
him a nasty look. “Is this like, your way of getting revenge on him for the cows??”
Tango crossed his arms, giving him a toothy grin. “Well, I mean now that you mention it, yeah, I
guess this could work as some kind of revenge.” He turned his head to face the lava trap he’d built
that had just claimed its next victim. “Care to try it out yourself, Smajor?”
Scott rolled his eyes. “You really think I’d go and try your game out myself after just watching my
‘husband’ die to it?” He turned heel and walked away, knowing exactly where to meet back up
with Jimmy now that he’d respawned.
Tango laughed. “I guess not. You’re too smart for that.”
Scott whipped his head around just as he’d made it halfway down the steps. “Don’t flatter me,
Tek.”
The other shrugged. “I suppose I’ll just have to settle for windowing you then.”
“You haven’t widowed me just yet.” Scott argued. He hadn’t yet forgotten that Jimmy still had
two lives left before he was gone for good, such as the rules of the game dictated.
“We’ll see about that…” Tango smirked, though Scott had already tuned back around to ignore
him as he walked off into the night.
“Jimmy! I have your stuff!” Scott yelled as soon as he spotted his partner. He made his way over to
him before proceeding to dump a load of random items into the other’s arms. “You feeling
alright?”
Jimmy vanished the last of the items, nodding sadly. “Could be better, but at least I’m not red yet.”
He sighed. “I really wanted to get those boots though.”
It had been more than a few days that had gone by on the server by now and after having spent so
much time with the canary hybrid, Scott was beginning to master the art of reading his expressions
like an open book. When Jimmy was happy, he’d smile widely and mellow out his speech, when
he was frustrated he’d scrunch up his nose and start talking loudly, and when he was sad, genuinely
sad, he’d avoid eye contact, his voice going quiet and words stretching far and in between. That
was at least, when he was trying to hide his sadness, but as was the case with Scott right now, he
could rarely hide it from him anymore.
“It sucks that I had to lose my first life for nothing. And in such a stupid way too.”
Scott frowned. “Hey.” He leaned in closer to Jimmy, placing a hand on his shoulder. “If I don’t get
to call myself names, then neither do you.”
Jimmy looked up at him, tilting his head.
“You’ll do better next time.” Scott smiled. “And even if you don’t, it’s just a game. If it really was
as stupid as you said it was, then there’s no reason why you should let it ruin your fun.”
Jimmy stared at him back momentarily before Scott saw his body relax, shoulders slumping and
jaw going slack as a much calmer smile spread across his face.
Scott giggled lightly. “What?”
“Nothing, just…” Jimmy rubbed at one of his shoulders, Turing away from him slightly, but still
smiling all the same. “—I’m really glad you found me.”
It had been a few days since the game had started, and a short while since Scott started being able
to read Jimmy’s emotions. But even during rare times like this, he still found himself stuck on a
few expressions, scratching his brain for ideas on what Jimmy might be thinking. This time, he felt
unable to figure him out entirely, but that was okay. If luck would allow it, he’d still have plenty
more time to learn and even more time to spend with Jimmy in general.
If things could just continue as is, he’d have more instances where Jimmy seemed to be amazed by
whatever it was he would do, or say, or build, no matter how mediocre Scott thought it to be
himself. More nights where they could talk each other to sleep. More cows to herd and flowers to
plant and friendly jabs to be made at each other whenever it felt right. Despite the premise of this
game, Scott felt at peace when he was with Jimmy. He was sleeping well and having fun, and if
they were lucky, they wouldn’t lose another life between them for a while. If fate willed it so, they
could continue like this for even longer.
He could have told Jimmy that he was happy he found him too. God, was he happy. But for some
reason, his brain backfired upon hearing the canary say it first, and all he’d managed to get out
instead was—
“No need to get all sappy, Jimmy.”
Of course, all Jimmy did was laugh in return, completely unsuspecting of anything Scott may have
said otherwise.
“I’m your husband.” Jimmy replied, playing along with the more or less inside joke they’d created
during the very first day of Third Life. “Aren’t I allowed to be sappy?”
Scott smiled warmly. If it would make him happy, Jimmy could be whatever he wanted to be…
“We’re here.” Tango stopped in front of the snowy hill that escalated towards the entrance of the
Skyscraper. Scott had never seen the blaze more filled with dread than he did in this instance. He
looked stiff, uncomfortable, not quite afraid yet nowhere near calm either. He turned to Scott,
shooting him a sad, but comforting smile. “Last chance to back out, cause I guarantee you, he is not
gonna be happy to see me.”
Scott trembled at the blaze’s words. He was right, Impulse would probably not be happy to see
him, but what may have just been simple annoyance towards Tango could have very well turned
into something close to hatred thanks to Scott’s actions. He really hoped that wasn’t the case, but if
it was, he’d try his best to be there for his teammate, just as he’d promised him.
“I’m not leaving you.” He answered with finality.
Tango sighed, nodding before taking a step forward. Scott followed, one foot in front of the other
making their way towards the door of the Skyscraper. Each movement heightening Scott’s worries
tenfold, though that was probably nothing in comparison to what Tango was feeling.
In an instance, just as they’d stopped in front of the main door, Scott felt his anxieties kick into
overdrive. He couldn’t just let Tango go in there blind like this. It wasn’t right.
Scott decided then and there that he needed to tell the other what really happened when he went to
visit Impulse. To hell with how mad he was probably going to be with him later, he needed to
know this now, or else Scott would never be able to live with himself.
“Tango, wait.” Scott motioned a hand forward just as Tango was reaching to knock. The blaze
stopped halfway to look at him, likely some parts confused for the interruption as well as equal
parts grateful for it if it meant stalling this conversation for even a few seconds longer.
Scott swallowed a lump in his throat. “Before we go in, there’s something you need to know.”
Tango said nothing. He just waited for his answer with all the patience in the world.
Scott continued, words falling out a bit more frantically and uneven than they had previously. “I
know I should have told you this sooner, but you should know that—“
He would never even get past the first sentence.

To both of their surprise, the front door swung open. Scott hadn’t exactly felt cold before, but he
did know what an excess of warmth felt like. That sensation hit him right in the face once the door
opened, the comforting feeling just as quickly being chased away by one of dread as he saw who
was in front of them.
“Impulse…” Tango breathed, still frozen stiff and unsure of what to do.
Impulse hadn’t looked any better since the last time Scott had seen him. For one, as Tango had
predicted, he most certainly did not look pleased to see them. On top of that, his hair was uneven
and Scott was quickly able to notice those all too familiar dark circles that implied a lack of proper
sleep framing the other’s eyes.
Neither of them said anything. So Impulse started the conversation for them.
“Heard you being loud behind the door.” He said, voice tired and emotionless. Scott figured he
must have been on the first floor just now, as unlucky as that was for them. “Let me guess, you’re
here for Bdubs?”
Instantly, Scott saw his teammate’s eyes go wide, arms frantically moving about in a gesture of
sincerity. “No. No—not at all! I- I’m actually here because I wanted to talk to you!”
There was a pause.
“—Please?” Tango added on.
Impulse looked the other up and down, raising an eyebrow.
“Well that’s shocking.” He spoke bitterly.
Scott opened his mouth, as if anything he could say now would possibly help them. “Imp-“
“Go away.” Impulse muttered. He moved to close the door, but did so lazily, leaving just a crack of
it still open as he walked back inside without noticing, nor caring.
Scott locked eyes with his teammate for a second, his mind thinking three steps ahead and already
well aware of what Tango was about to do.
“Tango, wait-“ He tried to grab the other’s shoulder, but was too slow. Before he knew it, Tango
was swinging the door open once more and waltzing into the warm building. Scott, left with no
other options, let out a groan and followed reluctantly. He shut the door behind the both of them.
This time, Tango seemed much more stern and determined to face his ex despite how nervous he’d
seemed before.
“Is Bdubs still even with you?” Tango spoke up as he continued to walk forward. Scott noticed that
the lighting of the building was dimmer than it’d been the last time he was here. To that extent, the
room on the first floor looked slightly different too. Most of the crafting tables were gone, it was
messier, there were more furnaces than before, one of which, was cooking something inside it.
Scott assumed that must have been why Impulse was down here and why it was so warm all of a
sudden. He was probably just cooking his dinner.
Impulse turned around again. He didn’t seem surprised that Tango had gone the extra mile and
more or less forced his way inside, just disappointed that their conversation was apparently going
to continue on whether he liked it or not.
“He’s sleeping.” Impulse answered, annoyed. “And I thought I told you to go away?”
“I don’t think you want that.” Tango replied calmly. “Not really.”
“Oh, so now you think you now what I want?” The other spoke up, his frustration slowly
becoming more and more apparent through his tone.
“That came out wrong. I’m sorry.” Tango said back. He took a single step closer, so Scott did as
well. “I don’t know what you want. I don’t know you nearly as well as I did back before Double
Life and that’s my fault for not talking to you.”
His ex simply glared at him, but saved his breath for the time being. Tango’s words seemed to have
caught his attention, for whatever reason.
“I don’t know you as well, but what I do know is that you’ve been crying, and isolating yourself,
and throwing yourself off of buildings…”
His breath hitched. Scott hated how he could practically feel how concerned the other was for his
ex.
“—I know you can hardly trust anyone anymore.” Tango’s voice shook at that. “Gods, above do I
know.” He sighed. “But you know you can tell me anything, right?”
They both stared at each other intently. Scott had been afraid of coming here for a few reasons. He
didn’t want Tango to hate him, he didn’t want to be any worse off with Impulse than he already
was, but most of all, he didn’t want Tango to get hurt. And right now, as he watched his
teammate’s face contort into an expression of pure pleading, it was growing increasingly hard for
Scott to not grab Tango by the waist and carry him away from all this. But sadly, he knew that
waiting it out was the better option, even if it was a very uncomfortable one. He knew that even if
he did wisk him away or make him leave for whatever reason, it would only delay Tango from
coming back rather than prevent the encounter entirely.
“You can hate me forever, if that’s really what you want…”
The blaze’s voice continued to shake with every word. Scott still tried to keep himself from
budding in, if even just for a few more moments.
“—But you have to know that there’s nothing you could ever do to me that would make me want
to hurt you the way he hurt you.”
There was no additional context needed for that statement. Scott knew exactly who Tango was
referring to.
Impulse, on the other hand, looked as though he was becoming painfully aware of everything. It
didn’t take a genius to figure out that the man was just as uncomfortable discussing the past six
months as Tango was. His reaction to Scott bringing it up the last time they talked was proof
enough of that. However, this instance seemed different, at least, when Tango was the one talking,
being the only other person on this server who could fully understand his ex.
Out of nowhere, a small tinge of jealousy creeped up on Scott. He had no idea where it came from;
he had no idea why he was feeling it, but it was there. For understanding Tango better than he did
in that moment, Scott was jealous of Impulse.
“He’s still hurting me.” Impulse breathed out. Scott shifted to look at Tango. Neither of them
seemed to have expected Impulse to actually cave and start talking, but to his teammate, it seemed
like a pleasant, if not additionally frightening surprise.
“What do you mean?” Tango replied. His words were calm and focused.
Impulse only shook his head, his quiet voice growing colder with each word. “He never stopped
hurting me. He-“
He sucked in a sharp breath, turning his head to the side. “It never stopped fucking hurting…”
They both just stood there, confused. When the silence was long enough and Impulse seemed to
realize that neither of them understood him at all, he turned back to look at Tango, brows furrowed
and jaw clenched.
“You act like things are back to normal. Like everything is gonna be okay eventually. How did you
do it? How did you stop feeling as though everyone you ever knew was gonna betray you
someday? Like the world would cave in from under your feet at any moment? How did you ever
get better??”
Scott saw his teammate’s eyes shine with a noticeable familiarity. Tango looked a little less
confused than he did before, but still unsure of how to answer the other. “It’s not perfect…” He
admitted. Scott felt his heart sink just slightly at those words. He didn’t like hearing that Tango
was still struggling with this, much as he was already aware of it. “But—I had Jimmy, who was
always there for me, and-“
“It couldn’t have been that easy!” Impulse snapped suddenly. Scott nearly jumped, but Tango
seemed much more accustomed to how his ex tended to speak, and as such, wasn’t fazed in the
slightest, choosing to match the other’s sudden increase in volume instead.
“It wasn’t!” Tango fired back.
They both glared at each other sternly. For them, the tone of the conversation had shifted
completely, but for Scott, things had only become more clear.
For some reason, by one way or another, Impulse simply lacked the same kind of resilience that
Tango had to their shared situation. If Scott had to guess, his added difficulty in overcoming what
happened might have been in part due to the person he loved belonging to same server as him. In
other words, unlike Tango, there was no separate server for him to run off to whenever the drama
got too intense and on top of that, he not only had to worry about his own problems, but Bdubs’ as
well.
And now, he was wondering when things were going to start to feel normal for him again like they
did for Tango. Even if things really didn’t feel completely back to normal for the blaze, he was at
least still able to live his life and do his best not to worry about things. That was all he really could
do. But for Impulse, nothing had ever shifted for him. He was still just as afraid as he was six
months ago, never getting better, only learning how to hide his true feelings better. They say time
heals all wounds, but even after so long, his hadn’t even begun to scab over yet.
“What are you even going on about anyway??” Tango spoke, still frustrated with the other.
Tango didn’t know it, but in that instance, under these circumstances, Scott might have understood
where Impulse was coming from just a fraction more than his own ex boyfriend did. Because his
feelings for Jimmy never left him. He was still in as much pain from their breakup as he was the
day it happened. All he’d ever done was spend every day wondering when he was going to get over
him, when the pain was going to go away, when he would finally be able to move on…
“You’re still hurting.” Scott spoke bluntly, his brain practically on autopilot.
Impulse tilted his head over in his direction, shooting Scott a silent look of frustrated confusion.
Not sensing that he’d overstepped yet, Scott continued speaking. “You’re still in pain after what
happened on Hermitcraft and you’re wondering when the pain is going to end. Why some people
can just move on but you can’t.”
Now, he’d seemed to get the other’s attention. Tango’s as well, to that end. The blaze’s eyes
shimmered with concern. Scott stood there, painfully aware that every word he said was only
making the other feel guiltier, but he continued on anyway in the hopes that getting Impulse to
calm down would outweigh anything he was making Tango feel now.
“I may not understand why feelings like that persist for so long…” Scott went on. “But I think I
know-“
“You don’t get to pretend like you know anything about me.” Impulse cut him off. “Not after what
you said.”
Scott snapped his mouth shut, afraid of rocking the boat anymore than he already had. In all
honesty, it was a bit of a miracle that Impulse had let him go on for as long as he did without
bringing up their earlier conversation. However, that miracle had apparently run out now.
Impulse darted his eyes towards Tango again, the blaze appearing rightfully confused over what
was going on. “First you show up at my place and screw with my emotions just to get a kill in…”
He turned back to Scott. “Then you come to me to try and fix things on his behalf.”
Scott winced internally. Tango had opened his mouth, about to say something, but he still didn’t
appear to have the foggiest idea as to what was going on and as such, couldn’t think of anything to
reply with.
“You throw my past back in my face, tell me to shut up as if you weren’t the one who came to
me, act as though you know Tango more than I do…”
Scott stayed silent. He knew this was coming. He’d done this to himself.
“Scott…?” Tango asked, tone coated in confusion.
Scott clenched his fists at his sides. His briefly felt empathy for Impulse had all but vanished the
moment he changed the subject just to yell at him.
“Oh don’t tell me that’s what pushed you to try and leave the game?” Scott spat back, trying his
best to talk in a way that would keep Tango from asking any further questions. “I thought you were
built out of stronger stuff than that.” He teased.
Impulse grit his teeth. “I’m not gonna act like all that didn’t hurt.” He admitted. “It did, but it’s not
what threw me off the edge.”
Now, Tango’s attention was back on his ex, his concern and confusion having spread to
incorporate the both of them rather than just Scott.
Impulse continued speaking to Scott, but his gaze still fell back to Tango. “What finally did it for
me was seeing Ren and Martyn come back that same night, all happy and careless and healed just
like you were. Their past ignored and their drama gone… I should have been happy for them.”
His voice started to shake. “Damn it—Ren’s my friend. I should have been happy for them!”
Impulse ran his hands through his hair. It sounded more as though he was trying to change his own
opinion on things rather than anyone else’s.
“But instead all I wanted to do was get away from them. From everything.”
Scott let the other’s words sink in. It scared him just how similar he and Impulse’s mentality would
have been a week ago, when he too wanted to leave the game even if it ended up being at Tango’s
expense. Would he be agreeing with every word that came out of his mouth right now had he never
been teamed with Tango from the start? Probably. And while that should have made him
emphasize with his situation more, Scott still just couldn’t get over how awfully he spoke of his ex.
Whether that be because of their mutual avoidance over the past several months, because of what
happened at the Skyscraper earlier in the game, or out of a simple, petty jealousy over how “easy”
it was for him to move on from things, it didn’t matter. Tango wasn’t perfect, but he still deserved
better.
Maybe the sheer fact that Scott had come to think that way about the blaze was the real miracle
here…
“Scott…” Tango spoke cautiously, having by now probably pieced at least a few things together
about this situation on his own. “What did you say to him?”
His words were directed at Tango, but that didn’t stop him from glaring at Impulse the entire time
he was speaking. “Nothing he didn’t need to hear.” Scott said through his teeth.
Impulse laughed. “Is that how you’re phrasing it?”
“You were being an ass.”

“I wasn’t trying to be.”
“No, you weren’t.” Scott raised his voice. “You were trying to be reassuring instead, right?”
Impulse rolled his eyes. “You’re the one who wanted to have a conversation about Tango-“
“And you’re the one who brought Jimmy into it!”
At this, Tango, who had anxiously been following the argument from person to person with his
eyes, spoke up again. “What are you talking about??”
Impulse opened his mouth to answer, but Scott was quicker. “This asshole you call a friend—“
Scott said, throwing a thumb over to Impulse. “—felt the need to ‘reassure’ me that if the drama
between your friends continued then it was only a matter of time before Jimmy left you.”
Scott saw the blaze’s eyes go wide. “Shock” wouldn’t be the right word to describe his expression.
Perhaps “betrayed” was more accurate?
“Oh don’t act like you’re not secretly praying that it happens.” Impulse bit.
“I-!”
Scott held his tongue. What could he even say to that? It was true back then and what’s worse was
that he wasn’t even sure he could deny it now.
Scott’s heart sunk even further when he saw the look on Tango’s face. Oh god—why was he
looking at him like that? Why did he now look more angry and afraid than he did confused?
This wasn’t how this should have happened. No, he should have wordlessly left Impulse’s room as
soon as he started badmouthing Tango and Jimmy instead of staying around to argue. He should
have gone to Tango with this, or even just stayed quiet and kept him out of the situation
altogether…
“You’re unbelievable, you know that?” Tango spat as he glared at Impulse.

Scott took a step towards him. “Tango-“
“And you—“ The blaze seethed, facing him once more. “I never asked you to defend me! In fact, if
I remember correctly, I specifically told you not to!”
Scott pulled himself back again. He looked to the ground in shame. What else could he even do?
“Why? Why would you do this?”
Scott breathed in deeply, shaking his head in regret. “Jimmy wanted to do it. He admitted. “I told
him I’d come with, but he was always going to be the one doing the talking. Then he died, so I just
figured…”
Scott immediately regretted looking back up. Tango’s face had fallen, the look of betrayal now
stemming from his words as well.
“This was why you didn’t want me to come here.” Tango breathed. “Why you made any excuse
you could to get me to put it off—have you just been lying to me? This entire time??”
Scott tried to reply, if only because staying silent would just incriminate him even more. “I didn’t
lie about one thing.” He said. “I completely meant it when I said he’s no good for you.”
Scott looked to Impulse, his expression turning dark once more. “Are you proud of what you’ve
accomplished? Because your pissy attitude has only ever made him hurt.”
Impulse crossed his arms. “And what? Like your ex boyfriend hasn’t done worse?”
Scott’s eyes went wide in the exact same instance that Tango shot his head around. As if someone
had flicked a switch, both of their demeanors had shifted instantly.
“What the hell did you just say?” Tango stated coldly.
In the same way that Tango had been unfazed by Impulse’s outburst, he too knew Tango well
enough to not be startled by his ex’s tone.
“That’s one thing we can agree on, right Scott?” Impulse asked, a just barely visible smirk prying
at the corner of his lips. He looked back at Tango, who at this point, appeared as though he were
ready to start a fight at a moments notice. “Jimmy’s no good for you either Tango. Since the day
after Double Life, all he’s ever brought you was pain.”
“That’s not true!” Tango shouted.
“Yes it is! Maybe he didn’t mean any of it, but you can’t possibly tell me that everything that came
after was worth it. Was worth him!”
They’d both taken a step forward. Scott didn’t like where this was going at all. To that end, even
Tango, who had come here fully ready to grovel if it meant getting Impulse to talk to him again,
now looked ready to murder the guy.
The only thing that was keeping Scott from fighting Impulse at the moment was the fact that he
was yellow, but even that excuse was starting to wear thin with every word that came out of the
man’s mouth.
“Believe it or not, I do still care about you, Tango.” Impulse lowered his voice, seeming more
sincere in his words, despite their context. “I care about you enough to know that you need to break
things off with him. Double Life, Hermitcraft, and now this? All you ever did was fight for him. I
can’t even remember the last time I saw you truely happy.”
“Well maybe you just weren’t ever around enough to notice him!” Scott yelled, nearly at his wit’s
end.
“You know, I must have heard people refer to Jimmy as ‘ cursed ’ dozens of times over the course
of these games. He even calls himself that sometimes, can you believe it?”
Scott saw the hairs on Tango’s head begin to flicker, sharp teeth bared in a nasty scowl and red,
bloodthirsty eyes practically glowing.
“And now, seeing how he’s hurt Scott, how he’s hurting you…”
Tango took another step forward, one final warning signal for Impulse to stop talking. “If you
don’t shut the hell up I swear to god-“
“It has me thinking that maybe he really is cursed.” Impulse said casually. “Just not in the way we
all thought he was—“
That did it.
Before he could even finish, Tango was lunging at him, hair fully on fire with a sword he’d
summoned instantly gripped between his hands. Scott made no motion to stop him, simply
standing back to watch the fight.
Although, it wasn’t exactly much of a fight at all. In less than a second, Tango had thrown the
weight of his entire body on top of Impulse, forcing him to fall backwards onto the floor. Another
second after that and he was slashing and stabbing at his ex’s face and body all while Impulse
did… Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Scott had to commend his teammate for his willpower, as even in his rage-fueled red life state, he
was able to notice this as well. Maybe he’d been more lucid in what he was doing simply because
the person he was attacking was his ex boyfriend of all people, Scott wasn’t sure. But slowly, after
a point in which Impulse must have been just a single hit away from a phantom death, Tango
stopped his assault to look at the other, concern and confusion written all over his face
“Go on.” Impulse choked out as he stared up at his ex. “Do it!”
All at once, Scott, and surely Tango too, had realized what was going on. Impulse wasn’t
antagonizing them out of spite, at least, not entirely. He just wanted to die.
Maybe Bdubs, or whoever had gotten to him first during the period of time in which he kept trying
to leave the game had convinced him to stop trying for the sake of his teammates, but even if they
did, that still didn’t make the underlying issue go away. Impulse wanted out from this game
entirely and if trying to achieve that through self-inflicted phantom deaths only made his friends
angry at him, then he figured he’d just shoot for the next best thing: making someone kill him.
In one frantic motion, Tango rose to his feet. His hair was still on fire and his breathing had picked
up. Although now, he seemed more afraid than angry. Scott saw his teammate look around the
room, locking eyes with him momentarily before stumbling backwards towards the door. Scott
tried to reach out for him. If he could only just get the other’s hands back in his, then maybe he
could calm him down like he did last time.
But as soon as Scott had a hand placed on his shoulder, Tango had jolted away as if he’d burned
him.
Disturbed, upset, and not wanting to kill anyone anymore, Tango backed up the rest of the way
towards the exit, opened the door, and ran.
Scott was left standing there, feeling about a million emotions at once. Fear, concern, confusion…
But overall, anger seemed to be the one standing out the most.
Wordlessly, Scott turned around, shooting Impulse a look that could kill god. One ominous step at
a time, he approached him, drawing out his sword as he moved closer. Despite wanting to die,
Impulse appeared to tremble at the sight of him. Good. He should know by now that when it came
to talking shit about Jimmy, he was a little less forgiving towards him than Tango was.
Soon enough, Scott stopped walking completely, standing right in front of a very injured Impulse
and looming over him darkly.
“You’re lucky I have a bone to pick with Ren.” He stated callously. ‘And that I stopped caring
about the rules’ went unsaid.
Impulse visibly swallowed and in one swift move, Scott brought down his sword over his head,
dealing the final blow and causing the other to flash red.
ImpulseSV was slain by Smajor1995
Renthedog died
Scott lowered his weapon and stored it away. “There. Now you’re one step closer to leaving. Just
like you wanted.”
He went to walk back out of the building, turning around one last time to glare at the other.
“I hope it was worth it.”
Scott heard Impulse make a pained, wordless, noise from behind him, but he paid it no mind as he
closed the door. He had more important things to focus on right now. Immediately, Scott shifted
priorities and began sprinting as fast as he could down the mountain and towards the woods.
“Tango!” He started yelling as soon as he entered the forest biome. “Tango—I’m sorry!”
To Scott’s frustration, there was no response. Thankfully, there were still plenty of torches lying
around that had accumulated during the week that the game had been going on for, so hardly any
mobs were around. But even if there were a lot of them, given the speed Scott was running at, it
was unlikely that they’d be able to catch him or get a hit on him anyway.
“I shouldn’t have gotten myself involved with him. I should have told you the truth!”
Scott just kept running, continuing to yell around the trees in a desperate attempt to get a response.
Surely Tango would have just ran back towards the base, right? Where else would he have gone??
Yeah, that was where he must be. Scott would find him there, maybe frozen in a trance, maybe
crying in a corner—as horrible as those scenarios would be—at least he’d still be there! He had to
be. As long as Tango was there, as long as he could find him, he could comfort him just as he
always did, just as they’d done for each other countless times.
After running in near darkness and calling Tango’s name for what felt like ages, Scott finally saw
something promising. A light, brighter than a torch glowing off in the distance. Even in the dim
lighting, he recognized this place. He was headed in the right direction. Home was just a few
meters away.
Scott took a second to gulp in a few deep breaths of air, having not realized how much he was
exerting himself. He opted for speed walking instead, still eager to get back to the cabin as quickly
as possible.
As he moved forward, the light grew brighter. At first, Scott suspected that it had to have been
coming from the touches lined up on the walls inside the base, possibly shining brightly out the
windows, but as he made his way closer, the light grew brighter, and then, even brighter.
Maybe it was Tango. His hair had still been completely on fire, even as he went to run out the door.
Perhaps the light was all coming from him?
“Tango?” Scott called. He still got no reply. At that point, he had almost made his way past the
trees surrounding the cabin. The light was now brighter than ever and he could also hear…
sizzling?
“What the…” Scott stepped over a lining of bushes, past the last of the trees and into the clearing,
now able to see the cabin in its entirety. To his horror, he came to see that the light was, in fact,
coming from Tango, but not just Tango.
Nearly every inch of the base was on fire. And not just the cabin, but the surrounding area as well.
Bushes, trees, grass—it had all gone up in flames. Some areas were coated in lava, others simply
on fire, but everything, everything was ablaze. Including the garden, which was the first thing to
grab Scott’s attention, given that Tango was standing right in the center of it.
Scott had been rendered speechless for a moment, simply taking in the image of everything going
on around him. Tango was clearly visible, except he didn’t quite look like Tango for some reason.
In that moment, the blaze had not only his hair on fire, but the entire rest of his body too, now
accompanied with small rods dancing around his head. His eyes had gone from being colored the
bright, bold shade of poppies that Scott had only just recently started to become fond of again, to
now looking more akin to the color of molten lava, both the sclera and the pupil being blended into
the same color, giving Tango the appearance of something inhuman and practically emotionless.
“Oh no…” Scott breathed, a lump in his throat rising. He had gone over many different scenarios in
his head while running involving what he might come back to once he got here. Maybe he’d have
to deal with an angry Tango, a sad one, bloodthirsty… He had thought the worst case scenario
would be that Tango simply wasn’t here, that he wanted to be away from him and had run off
somewhere else. But this… Nothing could have prepared him for this.
Scott approached Tango slowly. He hadn’t appeared to have noticed him yet. Scott wondered what
might happen once he did.
At first, an upsetting, almost unimaginable thought had crossed his mind. Had Tango done this?
Scott knew he was mad at him, but to do something like this… No. He couldn’t have. Something
as simple as the amount of lava placed down would explain away anything like that. Tango would
have had to have been carrying half a hot bar worth of lava buckets on him at the time to even
attempt destruction at this level, and given that he’d picked up the remains of his inventory just
earlier today after he had died, Scott knew for a fact that Tango didn’t even have one on him.
Having realized this, two more terrible thoughts quickly worked their way into Scott’s head. First,
an overwhelming feeling of guilt over the fact that he would even consider Tango capable of
something like this. And second, the realization that if Tango didn’t do this, then someone else did.
Tango wasn’t in this state because of what happened with Impulse (though that, along with his red
life instincts must have certainly not helped his mental state at all), no, he was like this because
he’d ran for home only to find a burning base and garden in its place. Their base and garden.
Scott could understand the anger. This base, the garden especially, was their one place of refuge, a
peaceful place they’d built together, one that they could relax and talk in whenever things got too
exhausting, both emotionally and physically. It had been where Scott had planted the bouquet that
Tango had given him. And now, it was gone. Rendered completely unsalvageable by the time
they’d both gotten here just like Tango and Jimmy’s ranch back in Double Life.
Scott continued making his way towards Tango. He looked though his inventory, noticeably
having a single bucket of water in it, one he’d been carrying around the entire game since Jimmy
had died for one very specific reason. There was no point in using it on the base. Anyone with eyes
could tell that that was long gone by now.
Instead, Scott crept up to his teammate, until it got too hot to bear, pulling out the bucket as quickly
as he could.
“Sorry for this.” Scott said sincerely. With Tango still unmoving, he threw the water as far as it
would go, aiming directly for him. But to Scott’s disbelief, all of the water instantly evaporated
right in front of his eyes before even a drop could touch the blaze directly.
“Oh-“ Scott watched on, both amazed and terrified at what had just happened. Then, he
remembered…
He’d gotten here too late. Water could not help him now.
Of course, that didn’t mean his attempts to put the other out went unnoticed. Scott dropped the
bucket, watching in stunned silence as Tango slowly turned his eerily featureless face over to look
at him.
He stared at the other for a single moment.
“Tango-“
Tango didn’t wait another second before pouncing on Scott, shoving them both to the ground just
as he had with Impulse. This time however, he had yet to pull out a sword or any kind of weapon
and begin stabbing him with it. Christ—did Tango even know what a sword was right now or how
to summon one? Was he trying to resist his urges and keep from killing him, or was he just so far
gone that he didn’t know how to??
“Tango…” Scott groaned. Tango made no verbal response. Instead, he leaned in closer, staring
Scott down with the ferocity of a bloodthirsty predator. He made a noise that sounded like him but
wasn’t quite human and Scott tried to sit up, but his efforts were met with a strong, forceful push
back down. Tango had his wrists pinned above his head; he could feel sharp nails digging into the
skin, and that was nothing to say of the numbed, but still halfway-painful burning sensation the
blaze was emitting all over his body.
In an act of desperation and still uncaring for the rules, Scott tried to coat his body in a layer of
frost, but that didn’t work either. Even the large chunks of ice he tried to manifest around the areas
where Tango was holding him down seemed to melt into water, then steam upon contact. Scott
figured he would have been impressed with this if he wasn’t so terrified right now. Had Tango
always been so powerful?
His thoughts were cut off by the unexpected heightened feeling of dulled, searing pain in his wrists
and sides. It shouldn’t have hurt. The pain settings were still turned down for this server and any
heat the players experienced should have only made them feel uneasy discomfort at the most. But
this was no ordinary fire. This was something Scott had never encountered before—and it was
making him hurt.
“Tango, you’re hurting me…”
Despite how unresponsive the blaze had been this entire time, for some reason, this was what
finally seemed to get his attention.
Scott saw Tango’s pupil-less eyes expand in what looked like a gesture of shock. Scott then felt his
grip loosen on his wrists, though they were still pinned down none the less.
Scott knew his hearts were going down one by one. He tried not to panic, but he knew that at this
rate he didn’t have long until Tango took away his own final life by phantom killing him.
That thought alone… it scared him an unreasonable amount. The first time he chose to stick
around, it was so that Jimmy could still have a shot at making it past the first death of the game for
once. Then when Jimmy still died, he chose to stay simply because he didn’t want to face him
again in the meetup world or on Empires. If he could put off the rest of his future for just a little
longer, one that looked to be a life where his love would forever be just out of his reach, then Scott
was willing to do anything in his power to keep himself in this game for as long as possible.
That reason was still just as motivating to Scott as it was at the start of things, but now, in this very
moment, as Scott’s hearts continued to tick down, he realized that there was another equally
important reason for him to want to stay alive. One that had been continuing to build in influence
ever since Jimmy left the game.
If Tango died now, he would never see him again.
Well, not never, of course. Worse than that, actually. He’d be stuck in a limbo where he could
neither be with Jimmy nor spend time with Tango. The both of them would be fine. With time,
they’d go right back to how things were before because they still had each other. Only now, Scott
would be left with the memory of being with both of them. Things wouldn’t just go back to normal
for him anymore. No. Because at least “normal” was bearable. At least then, he still carried some
kind of hope, however small it was, that Jimmy might come back to him. That he’d chose him and
only him and they could be happy again. Except now, whatever kind of existence Scott might go
back to, he knew it would only feel worse with Tango not around, coupled with the understanding
that Jimmy did in fact love Tango very much and that there was probably no chance in hell of him
running back to him at all. How much worse would this situation be exactly? He didn’t want to
find out.
Scott ticked down another half heart. He never wished so badly for Jimmy to be here for any
reason other than his own desires. This time was different however, because all Scott could think
of now was how Jimmy would know exactly what to do in this situation, how to calm his boyfriend
down in an instance. It almost made him laugh. No wonder Tango pounced at him right away, he
was no Jimmy. He had no idea what he was doing.
He wasn’t Jimmy…
From what Tango had told him, the last time he caught fire to this extreme, Jimmy was able to talk
him down by offering up his life as opposed to fleeing like everyone else did. But that wouldn’t
work with him, now would it? Tango didn’t feel that way about him. If he only encouraged Tango
to kill him, it would probably just lead to a swifter death in his case. However, Scott didn’t have
long to think. It might be a pointless endeavor but if getting Tango to truly care about him in this
state was his only way out, then it wouldn’t hurt to at least try, would it?
Scott’s throat felt hoarse from all the yelling and running. In truth, he didn’t know what exactly he
was suppose to say, but he figured that trying to pull Tango back down to earth was a good place to
start.
“Tango,” Scott grunted, trying to ignore the burning sensation in his wrists. Fuck. Was this how
Jimmy felt back in Double Life? “—you remember where we are, right? You remember how this
world works?”
Tango losened his grip a little more, but otherwise said nothing. Scott felt more hopeless by the
second, but he still pressed on.
“If you hurt me, it won’t kill me. It’ll kill you.” He grit. “Then you’ll be gone for good. You’ll be
gone and I—“
Scott struggled to speak once more. The words on his tongue suddenly felt heavy.
“I’ll be all alone again…”
Tango stared down at him, his expression unreadable.
Scott wanted to cry. Not because he was in physical pain, not even because he was about to lose
Tango, but because This. Wasn’t. Working. And of course it wasn’t. What did he expect? He
wasn’t Jimmy. Tango would never care about him the way he cared about Jimmy and if anything,
that only served as more proof to him as to why the two should be together. Why they were going
to go on being together and living happily once this game ended, all while he faded back out of
their lives. This time, for good.
“Please.” Scott choked out just a few more words in one final attempt to get Tango snap out of it.
“Please don’t leave me.”
Scott stifled a sob. His words were no longer manifesting just out of an attempt to keep Tango
alive. This was an outright confession. And it wasn’t like how things were with Jimmy. He’d
decided to stop lying to himself about his feelings after that incident and as such, this was not an
admission, but a realization. He wanted Tango to stay in his life. Despite everything—he needed
him here with him in the same way that he needed Jimmy. And fucking hell, did he still not fully
understand just why he felt that way yet, but it was true.
“I can’t do this without you.”
Scott shut his eyes. It was pointless. All of it. Any second now his partner was going to disappear
because maybe he did care about him, just not enough to stay with him. Not as much as he cared
about Jimmy.
Any second now.
Any…
“Scott?”
Scott opened his eyes. He hadn’t even noticed that the burning had stopped. All he really did notice
was Tango, still hovering directly above him. Wisps of fire now only danced on the far edges of his
hair. His body, while still at a near uncomfortable temperature, was at least no longer on fire. All
that however, was overshadowed by just how exhausted the blaze looked. His eyes were back to
normal, but they were half lidded and drowsy. Creases under his eyes and around his cheeks and
forehead framed his face, but it was still the same face that Scott had missed, the one he couldn’t
have been happier to see in this moment.
“ M’so sorry… ” Was all Tango was able to get out before his arms gave out and he promptly fell
the rest of the way down, landing his head directly on top of Scott’s chest.
Scott heaved out a long sigh of relief.
It worked. It actually worked…
“It’s okay.” Scott half laughed, half cried the words out. “It’s okay…”
Suddenly, he felt Tango move again. To his disappointment, Scott assumed he was moving to
stand back up. The blaze instead however, did the exact opposite and curled an arm under Scott’s
shoulder, tucking himself into him in a sort of half-hug. Scott began to wonder if the other was still
fully lucid in his actions before those thoughts were quickly replaced by feelings of surprise when
Tango hummed contently against his chest.
“Miss him…” Tango muttered out of nowhere. His eyes were shut, body resting gently across
Scott’s own without a care in the world.
“I know.” Scott whispered. He then did something he probably never once thought he’d find
himself doing to Tango in a million years and brought one of his hands up to the other’s now fully
extinguished hair to run his fingers through it soothingly. “I know, Tango. I do too.”
Not another word was spoken after that, likely because Tango was now out cold. With all the
running and emotional exhaustion the day had brought him, Scott didn’t blame him for passing out
like he did. He looked around for as far as his neck would stretch in this position. There were no
mobs anywhere near what was left of the garden, and the fire would probably keep any more out
till morning. For their own safety however, Scott broke the rules one (hopefully) last time to coat
a small area around them in frost, putting out any fire that might have had a chance of reaching
them in their sleep.
Scott held Tango closely. He stared up at the moon and the sky full of stars, more confused in his
life than he had ever been, and despite the environment he was lying down in, slowly, but surely,
fell asleep to the rhythm of Tango’s breathing.
Neither of them let go of each other till morning.
Chapter End Notes
Yet another chapter who’s scene’s I’ve had sitting in the back of my mind for the past
(checks calendar) year and one month I think? going off of when I made the outline
for this fic, not the day I first posted btw. So yeah, a very long hecking time. Hands
down my favorite chapter to write thus far, like I love writing each of these chaps, but
by comparison, it’s not even a competition, lol. Hope you enjoyed!
Scott - Yellow
Jimmy - X
Tango - Red
Cleo - Yellow
Bdubs - Yellow
Etho - Red
Grian - Yellow
Scar - X
Bigb - Red
Ren - X
Martyn - X
Impulse - Yellow
Pearl - Red
Joel - Yellow
Lizzie - Red
I’m Sorry
Chapter Summary
Tango tries to leave Scott for fear of hurting him again. Scott is having none of it.
Chapter Notes
“You should’ve let me kill them.”
Tango watched Jimmy look down at him from where his head was comfortably stationed on his
lap. He gave him a puzzled look before continuing to run his fingers through his hair.
“I’m mad at them too, believe me.” Jimmy replied.
“Mad”, of course, didn’t even begin to describe how Tango felt after a group of other soulmates
decided to bury his partner alive. He’d learned his lesson the last time, however and was able to
just barely keep his anger down long enough for them to both get out of there. Doing that also
seemed to be a lot easier when Jimmy was around. A lot of things seemed easier with him around,
actually.
“I don’t think we could have taken all of them on together though. Would’ve just ended up getting
us both killed.”
That, he was right about. Even if he really did want to let loose and at least try to kill a few of the
other players, he knew now that what actually ended up happening was all for the better. Even if it
left him really frustrated for a while.
“You always were more level-headed than me.” Tango admitted. He smiled up at his boyfriend
lovingly, catching a pleasant glimpse of the starry night sky as well. He knew that everything they
needed to do for the day was finished and sleeping was made a bit more difficult given their
heightened urge for violence as courtesy of their red life status, so, doing some stargazing it was. At
least they were able to do it from the comfort of their own fenced-in home. The grass was always a
lot softer over here anyway.
“Well you’re a lot smarter than me. Especially when it comes to surviving.” Jimmy said back.
Though his tone was less upbeat and more ashamed.
Tango frowned, rising to sit up. “That last death wasn’t your fault.” He argued, recalling the fight
that went down when they’d come to Scar to get enchantments, along with how Jimmy wouldn’t
stop beating himself up for it since it happened. “I told you, we were cornered. They were gonna
get to us eventually.”
The canary didn’t say anything, only tucked one of his now free legs up into his chest.
“Hey, c’mere…”
Tango scooted over to his boyfriend’s side, stretched his arms out and wrapped the other in a
comforting hug. It took Jimmy a second to react, but eventually, he surrendered completely and
relaxed into it. They continued their evening like that, mostly in silence. At some point, Tango
started planting soft kisses onto Jimmy’s neck and shoulders, enjoying every small noise the other
made.
“What did I do to deserve you?” Jimmy breathed before leaning in to kiss the blaze properly.
Tango hummed contently, letting his lips linger for a while before he pulled away, smiling. “You
were just you.” He whispered. “And I happened to like that.”
Both were growing tired, though neither wanted to say it. For a while, Tango just kept at it,
planting kisses anywhere he liked and letting Jimmy do the same. After a good few minutes, the
events of the day that had made him so angry before had practically slipped his mind.
“I love you.” Jimmy whispered.
Tango opened his eyes, flinching suddenly before turning to look at the other.
Jimmy swallowed, cautiously inching his head back up to look at him. “Should- should I not have
said that-?”
“Nonono-!” Tango nearly laughed. “Just—you’ve never said that to me before. Like, not that
directly anyway.”
They didn’t stop looking at each other and a happiness that Tango had never experienced before
fell over him all at once.
“I love you too, Angel.”
Jimmy smiled, looking as though he were about to cry from relief. In all honestly, Tango could say
he felt the same.
They both relaxed into a comfortable silence, though Tango’s thoughts were louder than ever. It
took all his strength not to scream those words loudly off the roof of the ranch. He loved Jimmy.
He just knew he loved him unlike anyone else he’d ever met before.
They went back to holding each other, staring up at the stars, wondering what sorts of things would
come after this game, but knowing that as long as they were together, everything would be alright.
“How did I ever get so lucky to find someone like you?” Tango spoke up suddenly, letting his
wandering thoughts be voiced aloud.
“You were just you.” Jimmy smiled plainly. “And you happened to die to a creeper.”
The two of them burst out laughing, effectively ruining the moment in what Tango would argue
was the best way possible.
Tango fully expected to find himself lying on the ground completely alone when he woke up. Scott
was a smart person, and in his strong opinion, leaving as soon as he was sure he’d fallen asleep
would have been the more predictable, reasonable, and logical thing for him to do.
Not whatever the hell this was.

He never figured out which one of them woke up first, but he did know that they both had to have
been completely awake by now despite the fact that he couldn’t 100 percent confirm that given that
he couldn’t really see the other’s face. The two of them lied there, somehow having rolled over into
a new, but still equally intimate position. The blaze had his forehead tucked into Scott’s chest, the
other’s chin resting on his head. He could also feel Scott’s arms wrapped around him, one
comfortingly supporting his lower back while the other reached the back of his head, fingers still
lingering in his messy hair.
This wasn’t normal for them. It just wasn’t.
This was completely different from the other time’s they’d fallen asleep together—and christ, just
the fact that this wasn’t the first, or even second time that this had happened was already saying
enough. But no, this had a different meaning to it entirely. Tango noticed when his teammate’s
breathing had picked up, when he started shifting around subtlety, but still often enough for the
difference to be noticeable. Scott was awake, he was awake, they both acknowledged this, and yet
neither of them had even attempted to move away.
They both just stayed there, silent, knowing, but not physically nor verbally acknowledging their
situation in the slightest.
Mentally however, Tango’s mind was racing.
He went back to what had happened last night. Back then, his thoughts had been hazy, but now,
they were clear and coherent. Every painful detail had been laid out in front of him like some
messed up movie. His conversation with Impulse had gone terribly, he found out Scott had been
lying to him, he lost his cool and tried to kill his ex right before realizing how much pain he was
really in and that doing that would have helped no one, and then he left, running straight for home
with the hope that maybe the remainder of his flames would cool down by the time Scott got there
and he wouldn’t feel the urge to hurt anyone anymore.
Oh how horribly wrong he was…
It was like seeing the ranch burning in Double Life all over again except this time, it was somehow
worse. At least back then he wasn’t a red life yet. At least he hadn’t been experiencing feelings of
extreme bloodlust right before he got there. At least he still had the coherent thoughts of a human
being (if not a very angry and confused one), and not some wild fucking animal ready to pounce on
the first person who posed any kind of threat. And Scott—oh god, Scott…
“Tango, you’re hurting me…”
Just when he’d thought he’d finally run out of ways to hurt him, he goes and invents another way,
one that shouldn’t have even been achievable in this world.
Tango shuddered under Scott’s embrace. A movement which the other wordlessly acknowledged
by giving his body a comforting squeeze.
Reality came back to him. He knew what he was still doing here, letting Scott hold him, refusing to
move away as if doing so would shatter the false illusion they’d created that made things feel as
though everything was going to be okay. He knew he’d felt something more for Scott for a while
now, even if he didn’t like thinking about it. But that still raised the question, what was Scott still
doing here? Tango feared that if he thought too much on the answer to that, he’d have another
breakdown.
So, he decided to break the illusion—to do what some might call the “brave” thing to do, but that
he would simply call “stupid”—and outright ask Scott himself. No more putting off his problems,
no more dodging the question. No more awkward glances and mixed signals and holding and
touching each other in a way that felt far too intimate for it to be normal. Tango was done with all
that. He just wanted to be done with everything.
The blaze opened his mouth, voice dryer than he’d realized.
“You didn’t leave.”
Immediately, he felt Scott flinch from under him, his heart beat picking up. But still, he kept calm.
He didn’t move away.
“Did you think I would?”
Tango swallowed. “I don’t know what to think.” He answered honestly.
It took a while before Scott replied, at which point, his heartbeat had slowed down again.
“How much of what I said last night do you remem-?”
“All of it.” Tango didn’t hesitate for a second in his words. He felt Scott flinch once more.
“All of it?”
Now, Tango was the one to stay silent. He shifted slightly under Scott’s hold, muttering his next
words softly into the fabric of his shirt.
“Did I hurt you?”
No reply.
“Do you hate me?”
Still nothing at first. Tango felt the urge to cry, but more than that, he felt like he should be the one
pulling away now. Scott was mad at him. He’d hurt him in yet another unforgivable way and he’d
understandably gone back to hating him over that. It was over. Scott would never want to see him
again. He screwed up, he—“
“I begged you to stay last night, didn’t I?” Scott was speaking closer to his head now. He could
feel his soft breath against his hair with every word.
“Scott…”
Tango gripped a corner of Scott’s shirt gently. He’d had this question sitting in the back of his
mind since the day after Jimmy died. Only now, it meant something different entirely. Back then,
he felt awkward whenever he thought about asking it, but now, in this moment, he felt downright
terrified.
“What am I to you?”
Scott didn’t answer.

His breathing stayed the same, there was no flinching that Tango had felt, no attempt at leaving.
Scott just remained silent. Whether that be because he didn’t know the answer or was too afraid to
say it, it didn’t change his reaction.
Tango sucked in a shuddery breath. He didn’t like either of those options and Scott’s continued
silence was enough to confirm to him that at least one of them had to be true. All at once, the dark
thoughts started coming back. What if Scott regretted asking him to stay? What if he was only
holding him now and neglecting to answer his questions because he was afraid of how he’d react
when given the answer? Was he afraid of him now? He wouldn’t blame him if he was. He’d
burned him. Oh god, he’d burned him and Scott would never forgive him for that.
He needed to leave. If Scott really was afraid of him now, then it’d be in both of their best interests
if he were to just make the first move for him. If he were to just get up, walk away, and leave him
alone for the rest of the game. Even if his silence didn’t come from a place of fear, even if he really
did want him to stay, Tango knew that it would only be a matter of time before he ended up hurting
Scott again.
The blaze buried his face even deeper into Scott’s chest, mostly to mute any shuddering or
whimpering that might come out of him. He noted how Scott smelled of flowers, ash, and earth. He
liked it.
…He didn’t want to leave him. No he did not, but if that was what kept him safe, then he would. It
was the least he could do after everything.
“Fine.” Tango finally responded, pulling away from Scott, who seemed to grip him lightly in
surprise, but showed little resistance otherwise. “If you don’t want to talk, I- I get it. I’ll just
leave-“
“Tango-“ Scott sat up immediately, following his motions in tandem as he tried to get up and walk
away. For a moment, Tango looked back at him purely by instinct as a way of acknowledging his
response.
He almost wished he hadn’t.
Scott’s hair was a mess, clothes dirty and somewhat singed, but what caught Tango’s attention
more than anything were the bright red, hand-shaped marks around his wrists and part of his palms.
They had to be second degree burns, at least. Odds were, he wasn’t in any real pain from them
anymore, but the experience of getting burned by his fire like that in the moment, what it must have
felt like…
Tango could practically feel a part of his heart shattering. He snapped his head forward once more
to look away while his breathing picked up instantly. He needed to get away from Scott. Now.
He started walking again, this time, faster, past the cooled piles of what used to be lava, past what
remained of the cabin, but Scott still persisted. He could hear him still trying to follow him as if he
were anything other than a danger. Tango cursed in his head. Why was he doing this? Didn’t he
have any sense of survival? Shouldn’t he know by now that being around him was only ever going
to bring him pain?
Just like with Jimmy…
The blaze ignored him, or at least tried to at first. He dusted some of the dirt he still had on him off
his body and promptly continued to speed-walk away from the cabin and into the trees. To his
disappointment however, less than a few seconds had passed before he heard the rustling of leaves
coming from behind him. Scott was still following him. Why was he still following him? Why did
he still care??
“Tango, wait!” The other yelled, still moving past the trees at a relentless pace. He tried to pick up
his pace, hearing only the sound of frantic movements and the occasional shouting from behind
him the entire time.
“Are you still mad at me for lying about what happened with Impulse??”
The blaze stopped walking.
He turned around, now seeing clearly that Scott had only been a few meters away from him this
entire time. Scott seemed to take the opportunity to close the distance between them a little more,
now staring him down from a short stretch away with a look of worry on his face.
Some hint of frustration from the night before suddenly circled its way back into Tango’s thoughts.
He was still a little mad at Scott for what he did, but understood now more than ever that that paled
in comparison to all the horrible things he’d done to him. Still some irrational part of his head
somehow came to the conclusion that if walking away silently wasn’t going to get Scott to stop
following him, then maybe yelling at him would.
“I’m mad at you for a lot of reasons!” Tango snapped, face falling the second he realized what he
was actually saying.
Scott’s expression, understandably, shifted into one of confusion. Rather than try to address this or
even elaborate on what exactly he meant, Tango decided instead to simply turn heel and continue
walking away from him.
After the initial shock of things however, Scott was quick to begin moving again. Still following
him like he didn’t know what was good for him.
“Okay- just hang on a second-!” He yelled in frustration. “Why else are you mad at me? Just tell
me why!”
Tango grit his teeth. Why wouldn’t he stop this. Why did he continue to care about him so much?
Couldn’t he just leave him alone like he wanted to in the beginning of the game? Just why??
Some part of Tango’s mind urged him to stay silent, but the other part knew that wouldn’t change
his predicament. So, he lied yet again, this time, wracking his brain for any kind of answer to
Scott’s question that he could come up with that would finally make him angry enough at him go
away—
“You made Jimmy cry!” Tango hissed, not entirely aware of why he chose that of all things.
Maybe it was because it was still true in some parts. Who could even say at this point?
When he didn’t hear an answer right away, he assumed Scott might have finally walked away, but
nope. When he turned around to check again, there he was. Now even more confused than before.
“I made Jimmy cry?” Scott asked raising an eyebrow. He wasn’t questioning the statement per say;
they both already knew this. But for obvious reasons he had to be at least a little perplexed on why
the blaze chose to bring that up now of all times. And honestly, they were both in the same boat on
that end.
Still, Tango kept going. Truth blending with lies, sadness mixing with frustration, it was now all
coming out at once, all of it rising to the surface in one big, emotional mess.
“Yes.” He stated, not knowing what else to do other than answer the other as honestly as he could.
“You broke things off with him in a really harsh way over a problem that you never even
considered trying to fix. You were stubborn, and mean, and all he ever did for weeks after was cry
over losing you.”
He saw Scott’s eyes widen, some hint of regret flashing through them before he lowered his gaze
sadly. “Okay.” He spoke quietly. “I’m sorry for doing that. All of it. I made a stupid decision and I
regret being the cause of any pain that came to him after.”
Tango wanted to run now more than ever. Why was Scott humoring him like this? Not even that
either, his words were so genuine it made his heart ache. He wasn’t suppose to actually apologize,
he was suppose to get fed up with him and leave, damn it!
“Well?” Scott raised his head back up, his voice now even and serious. “Don’t stop now, Tango.
What else are you mad at me for?”
Shit.
“You burnt down our first base.” Tango blurted out. Scott only shook his head.
“That doesn’t count. I already apologized for that.”
“Okay fine!” Tango yelled, growing more frustrated with every failed attempt to make Scott turn
away. “Then you made me talk to Impulse when I didn’t want to!”
Scott took a step forward. “I’m so sorry for that. Genuinely.”
“Then you kept bugging me to tell you about what happened on Hermitcraft-“
He took another step. “I’m sorry for that too.”
“-Then of course you go and start drama with my ex even though you said you wouldn’t-!”
And another. “And that.”
They both went silent.
“Is that everything?”
“You-“ Tango bit his lip, he turned his head away from him, ashamed. “You confuse me.” He
mumbled. “All the time, every day, you confuse me…”
Scott was now about two feet away from him. Tango could feel his eyes practically staring into his
soul. “And you think that’s something I should feel sorry for?”
Tango didn’t answer.
“That sounds more like a you problem-“
“I don’t know!!” He shouted. “All I do know is that I went into this game feeling so certain about
you, so convinced that you were this terrible person who did terrible things and that there was
nothing in the world that Jimmy could have possibly loved about you!”
Scott continued to stare back at him, now with eyes as wide as emeralds. Something told Tango
that his yelling didn’t surprise the other nearly as much as his actual words did. Still, he never
moved away, never tired to leave, only continued to stay with him, waiting patiently for an
explanation as to what he was even going on about.
“Tango…” Scott took one final step forward, bringing a hand up and closing the distance between
both of them when he finally, finally, rested his palm on the edge of his face, cupping it gently.
Tango could still see Scott’s burn marks clearly from there. The mere fact that the man was
willingly touching him once again only confused him even more.
He felt Scott swipe a thumb under his eye. Had he started crying? Oh god, he had, hadn’t he? It
didn’t matter anymore, however. Because with that one, single action, Tango felt all his fears
subside.
With that, Scott had finally broken him.
“Now… Now I can’t even imagine what I’d do without you…” Tango let out a sigh, moving his
own hand and placing it over Scott’s. “You’re amazing, Scott. In everything you try to do, in every
way you choose to be—you’re amazing.”
He noticed the other smile a little, if a bit sadly.
“With Jimmy, I’d always feel safe, loved, grounded… He’s home to me. He’s the one who makes
me feel better after a bad day, makes me laugh, kept me sane through everything; he’s my best
friend and the only person who really understood me.” He moved Scott’s hand down and held it in
his own. “—And then, I got to know you. And you—you’re like a fucking adrenaline rush. All the
ideas you have, all your skills, the amount of things you’re capable of… It’s all just so incredible to
me. But then, you’re also sweet and comforting and I always feel like I can tell you anything…”
Scott furrowed his brows. The look of shock shifted into one of worry and Tango hoped with
everything he had that he wasn’t putting the other off by saying any of this. Lord knows he could
barely handle it himself.
“And that’s why I confuse you?” Scott asked.
That question was not a simple one to answer, but Tango still tried his best to somehow throw in all
of the emotions he’d been feeling over the past week into only a few sentences.
“You confused me at first because no matter how hard I tried to hate you, I just couldn’t.”
The blaze heard Scott’s breath hitch. He didn’t stop.
“Then, you scared me, because if I couldn’t hate you, then that meant you were a good person.
And if you were a good person, then not only did that make every single thing I thought about you
wrong, but it also meant that I’d hurt someone who didn’t deserve it.”
He wrapped another hand around Scott’s. Neither of them made any attempt to move away from
each other.
“Then, after long enough, you terrified me, because I came to realize that I hadn’t done horrible
things to just any good person—I’d done horrible things to you.”
Scott’s eyes crinkled. He shook his head again. “You- You weren’t trying to hurt me…”
Both of their gazes fell to the burn marks. They both knew that the events of Double Life weren’t
the only thing Scott was referring to.
“But I did!” Tango insisted. “And now… Now, you’ve gone and done this.”
“What is ‘this’?”
“You put my flames out, Scott.”
Scott turned away. “I’m just as surprised about that as you are.” He breathed. “You told me it was
something near impossible to do.”
“And I wasn’t lying about that.”
He looked back at him, voice growing louder. “So tell me why then? Why me? Why was I able to
get through to you in that state??”
“All I was really comprehending in that moment was that you wanted me to stay.” Tango continued
to recall all the events of last night as clear as day. Everything he could remember, including his
own thoughts in that state, were all still painfully vivid. “—And if I couldn’t even do that one thing
for you,” The blaze’s breath continued to shake. “then what good was I?”
To Tango’s surprise, Scott pulled his hands away from him, balling them up as fists at his sides.
“What good-??” He choked, expression unbelieving. “Literally why do you think I even wanted
you to stay??”
The moment had gone cold. Tango raised his voice in return. “That’s what I’m trying to figure
out!”
They both paused, catching their breath to stare at each other again.
“What are we?” Tango asked once again and all Scott could do was avoid his gaze.
“Scott…”
The other crossed his arms, looking to the side.
“Scott, you never pushed me away last night.”
“I was exhausted.”
“Apparently not exhausted enough to keep you from petting my hair—“
Scott blushed furiously. “You’re the one who fell asleep on me!” He snapped. At least he was
actually looking at him again.
“It’s not just that.” Tango went on. “It’s everything else you’ve been doing recently. Holding my
hands, wrapping an arm around my back, hovering over my face-“
“If you wanted me to stop touching you, you could have just said so-“
“No!” Tango disagreed a little too eagerly, but he didn’t care right now. If Scott didn’t want to let
him leave, then he’d better hear him out at least.
But Tango didn’t get the chance to continue that train of thought. Now, it was Scott who was
talking.
“…It’s you too, you know.” He blushed. “You’re always touching my shoulders, and- and my
hair-“
“You had grass in it that time-“
“Would you just shut up and listen??”
Scott’s change in tone was startling, but Tango shut his mouth regardless.
“I never wanted this, you know.” Scott laughed coldly. “You think I wanted to actually like you?
To care about you??”
Tango kept quiet, even as tears began to coat Scott’s face, even as he curled into himself in that all
too familiar gesture that hinted at him wanting to be held, he kept quiet and let him do the talking
for once.
“It would have been so much easier if I’d just jumped off that cliff…”
To Tango, everything seemed to go still for a moment as those words sunk in. He’d suspected that
Scott would have been beyond upset at him after he’d attacked him last night, but here he was now,
angry as all hell like he thought he’d be, but for all the opposite reasons he’d assumed.
Tango hadn’t had his heart broken in a while and he’d almost fully forgotten what it felt like. Until
now…
The world started moving again and Scott took a step back, almost as if he’d surprised himself with
his own words. Then, he came to again, angry as ever with tears still actively running down his
face.
“—But no, you just had to convince me to stay, didn’t you? You just had to go and be so kind, and
interesting and a fucking wonderful person to be around-“ Scott sobbed. “Do you have any idea
how painful it is to lose someone knowing that you’ll never find another person like them again?”
He’d asked him a question.

“You’re talking about Jimmy-?”
“I’m talking about both of you!”
Tango tried to come back to Scott, taking a step forward this time. He couldn’t have heard him
right. No…
“Scott—I’m not going anywhere.”
“Yes you are!” Scott shouted. “This game will end eventually and when that happens you’ll go
back to Jimmy and I’ll be all alone again!”
“That- That’s not-“
He tried to reason with the other, but what could he say? It’s not as though he was certain that that
wouldn’t happen. They’d never even talked about this yet. They were both too afraid to. Neither of
them even tried to acknowledge the vast change their relationship had experienced over the course
of this game and even when other people would try to bring it up or ask about it they only ever
stayed silent or changed the subject. Tango was sick of it; he knew Scott was too, but for reasons
he understood a lot better now, Scott’s fear of what their relationship was and what it might mean
for them once they got back was so much vaster than his own.
Not knowing what to say, all Tango could do was look back at Scott dishearteningly, his lack of
response understandably only upsetting him even more.
“You should have let me go.” Scott tried to brush away a tear with his palm only for it to quickly
be replaced by more. “You should have let me go…”
Tango felt damaged in a way that was irreparable, not because Scott wished to have never gotten to
know him, but because he was right. Even if he knew he’d never be able to truly make things up to
Scott for what he did, he at least wanted to try to atone in some way. But as it turned out, he’d once
again only made things worse. He’d come into this man’s life like a damn tornado, tearing apart his
happiness and his whole world without a single care, and now, he’d come back to burn what little
was left into ashy nothingness.
The blaze felt sick in a way he’d never experienced before. What had he done? Jimmy still loved
Scott. Of course he did, because Scott was wonderful. They’d been happy together. They’d been
happy—and what had he done??
“If that’s really how you feel, then fine. I’m sorry I didn’t let you jump. And I’m sorry for
everything that came after.” Tango breathed. Because what else was there left for him to say other
than that he was sorry?
Scott didn’t respond, but he didn’t move either. His tears now flowed in a way that was eerily
silent.
“Do you know why I attacked Impulse last night?” The blaze chuckled darkly.
“I’ll admit, speaking about Jimmy the way that he did was enough to throw me at him on its own,
but that wasn’t the only reason why I lost my cool.”
Scott remained where he was, listening intently.
“I wasn’t just mad at him for that, I was mad because of how right he was.”
That seemed to get the other’s attention. “What are you saying…?”
What was he saying? He was saying that Impulse was right about one thing and that was that
everything went downhill the moment he brought Jimmy into his life. Except Jimmy wasn’t the
curse here, he was. The devil to his Angel, the fire to Scott’s ice—if one had to chose a single
factor to remove throughout this entire six month timeline that would correct everything that went
wrong between the three of them, anyone would see as clearly as ever that it would be him. It
should be him. He should have never been involved in Jimmy and Scott’s lives at all. And it hurt
like hell to finally, fully, realize this, but it was still the cold, hard truth that he needed to
understand. That he needed Scott to understand right here and now.
“Scott…” Tango sobbed. He put a hand to his quivering lips, his next words quiet, nervous, and
genuine.
“I’m so sorry… For everything.”
For a moment, everything felt still again. Then, Tango saw Scott’s eyes slowly widen as the
realization of what he was saying seemed to hit him with the force of a falling anvil.
Tango would have laughed if the situation wasn’t so serious, and if he weren’t currently
experiencing his own crisis right now. But he still had to acknowledge it. All the painful, terrifying
weight that came with those words. He had to let Scott know exactly how sorry he was because
trying to be his enemy hurt him horribly and trying to be his friend only hurt him more, so what
else could he possibly do for him other than this? What else was he even good for?
“Trying to hold on to Jimmy was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made. Not because he wasn’t worth
fighting for, but because if I hadn’t of done what I did, you’d both still be happy together.”
The tears were back now and they came in waves more violent than the last, but still, Tango
continued. He’d spell out all his regrets to Scott no matter how much they hurt to say. And then,
once this game ended, regardless of what came after, he’d do the same to Jimmy. He’d tell him
how sorry he was for loving him so much that it broke all three of them.
“I’d take it back, okay? I’d take it all back if I c-could…” The blaze still had his mouth covered, a
single, trembling hand trying to stifle any sobs that came out to no avail. “You’re an amazing
person and you must have been a wonderful partner for Jimmy to love you as much as he did. All I
ever did was show up and ruin things. I’m so s-sorry, Scott. I should have just let Angel leave with
you after Double Life. It would have saved you both so much pain…”
When Tango looked back up again, to his surprise, Scott no longer looked upset, but now rather
more on the angry side, crinkled yellow eyes glared at him as the other furrowed his brows.
“No.”
Tango tilted his head, confused. He took his hand off his mouth and lowered it. “Scott-?” Had he
even heard any of what he just said—?
“—NO!”
Tango jumped, confused even more now than he’d been when he’d fist woke up. He opened his
mouth, about to ask what was wrong before Scott cut him off once more, his voice now uneven
and frantic as he started on a rant.
“Okay Tango, let’s say you left Jimmy with me, assuming he’s even going to let the love of his life
leave just like that—then what??” He began pacing around, throwing his hands forward in an
exasperated gesture. “Do you go back to your toxic ex just to keep him from blowing up and be
miserable forever? Who do you think you are? Etho??”
Tango’s thoughts were racing. This… this was not the reaction he’d expected from Scott. The man
could have continued crying, possibly accepted his apology (as impossible as he knew that would
be), even slapping him in the face would have been more predictable and understandable than what
Scott was doing right now: outright rejecting the notion of an apology altogether.
The blaze stood there, baffled. Other than the shock that came with Scott referring to him as the
‘love of Jimmy’s life’ in a completely genuine manner, what also surprised him was the
mentioning of his past all of a sudden. Just what was Scott going on about??
“I- I broke his heart, Scott-“ Tango sputtered out hesitantly, not sure of how he should be
responding. Scott, of course, cut him off once again, voice even louder this time.
“—And Jimmy broke mine!” He gestured both hands at himself before promptly throwing them
back down. “Except I didn’t try to ruin his life over it!! Who’s to say he wouldn’t have just done
the exact same thing had you broken up with him under normal circumstances?? And aside from
that, you choose now of all times to tell me this?”
“Wha-?”
“Now, all it sounds like to me is that you’re trying to guilt me back into wanting your apology!”
Didn’t he though??
Tango held his hands up, shaking his head rapidly. “I’m not-!”
“You tell me that I’m incredible, that I don’t deserve this, that the only reason you’d ever feel sorry
over taking Jimmy away from me would be if you really, truly regretted ever knowing him in the
first place…”
What? When did Scott ever hear him phrase it that way so specifically?? He’d only ever said that
to him while he was sleeping!
…Wait a minute—
“—And if you really love him as much as I think you do, then you already know that leaving him
forever would make you miserable. Would make him miserable too!”
Scott stopped his pacing. He took a deep, exhausted breath in as he slumped his shoulders back
down.
“So no. You don’t get to say you’re sorry.” He spat. “Not after everything that’s happened, not if it
meant you’d be willing to hurt both yourself and Jimmy just to make me happy, and not if you
really do love him as much as I do!”
Tango continued standing there in shocked silence for a few more seconds. Now, Scott really did
seem like he was finished. And oh boy, was he right in referring to the man as a ‘rush of
adrenaline’ because his heart could not stop beating as though it were trying to escape his chest.
This was all to much to process at once; Tango felt his head might explode. However, in all the
chaos happening in his mind, Tango found himself still able to focus back on one thing.
Scott’s burned wrists.
He hadn’t eaten since last night, and so, his injuries hadn’t properly healed. The marks were still
there, an ugly reminder of what he did to someone he’d come to care so unbelievably deeply about.
Someone who trusted him.
“If I can’t apologize for that, then can I at least…”
He moved within touching distance of Scott, reaching out slowly for the other’s hands. He
wouldn’t have blamed him in the slightest if he were to pull away in that moment, but he didn’t.
“Can I at least say sorry for this?”
Scott frowned. He looked the blaze in the eyes and nodded.

He let Tango feel his scars, gently run his thumbs over the edges of them, hold both his hands in
his own tenderly…
“You know, if I had your powers, I probably would have lost it over something like this too…”
Scott spoke, likely trying to ease the tension. “Any ideas on who burned down the-?”
He stopped talking. Tango realized he was crying again. God, why did he always feel the most
emotional whenever he was around Scott or Jimmy? He just cared so much about them both—and
the thought of hurting either of them…
“Tango.” Scott whispered.
“Scott…”
“I’ve handled worse before.” He insisted. “Much worse.”
His tears flowed harder. That was not reassuring in the slightest.
“That doesn’t make it okay.” The blaze leaned in even closer. He lowered his head, both of their
foreheads nearly touching as he continued to look down at Scott’s wrists.
“Scott I’m so sorry…”
Scott must have known he was apologizing for more than just the burns, but if he did, he kept it to
himself.
“It’s okay.” The other whispered back.
“I forgive you.”
Tango sighed. He lifted his head up and made eye contact with Scott once more, their faces now
noticeably closer than they were before. He wanted to tell him that he didn’t deserve his
forgiveness, that despite everything he just said, if he never wanted to talk to him again, he’d
understand—
Scott gasped in surprise before he could even open his mouth. Tango still had his hands in his, but
Scott did take a small step back.
“Scott?” Tango continued staring at him, confused for what had to be the hundredth time this
morning.
“Shoot—I- I didn’t mean to—“ Scott stuttered, now pulling one hand away to cover his mouth.
Tango looked down again, and then back up at Scott.
“Oh,” He gently placed his hands back down, releasing Scott’s remaining one. “do you not want
me touching you-?
“Nonono!—it’s just…” Scott held his hands up, biting his lip.
“Scott?”
“I promise I didn’t mean anything rude by it.” He urged. “Really, it just caught me off guard is all,
and I do still think they look nice…”
Tango frowned. “Scott—what are you talking about?”
Scott looked like he was still hesitating to speak, but eventually, he caved.
“Your eyes.” He said bluntly. “They’re just… they’re doing the thing again…”
Tango raised an eyebrow, using his free hand to pull out his comm to look at his face in the
reflection of the glass screen.
“Thing? What thing-?”
He looked at his eyes.
To Tango, in that moment, everything in the world, from the buzzing of insects, to the blowing of
the wind, to Scott calling out his name repeatedly in confusion—it all went dead silent.
“Tango…?”
His pupils were blown out almost completely. As much as they’d been the day he fell in love with
Jimmy.
He’d only been able to see himself for a moment before his comm buzzed in his hands, the screen
lighting up with some sort of message or alert, but the blaze paid no attention to it. He didn’t even
bother to read it.
“ Tango. ”
Every single instance he’d spent with Scott—from the moment the game started to now—went
through his mind in a rush as if his life were flashing before his eyes. All in a second, everything
seemed to fall into place. All the weird thought’s he’d been having about Scott, all the feeling’s
he’d had, how he only just now came to terms with his willingness to let Jimmy go if it meant the
both of them could be happy, it all made sense now. It all suddenly clicked together.
So this was what all that had been…
“Tango!”
Love.
He was in love with Scott Smajor.
“TANGO-!”
The blaze felt a harsh tug at his arm and suddenly he could hear again. Time had unfrozen and for
some reason everything was ten times louder than it had been before, including Scott, who was
yelling something at him that he couldn’t fully make out. Loud, booming noises were all around
them, muffling everything the other was saying.
Before Tango could even fully grasp his bearings, there was a loud explosion that went off in front
of him. Him and Scott were both thrown backwards into the air in opposite directions. All Tango
could make out through the haze of smoke and destruction was Scott’s body hitting the ground
hard at almost the same time that his did before disappearing completely.
Tango was blown up by wither
Smajor1995 died
Chapter End Notes
FINALLY!
The death message that popped up on Tango’s comm that he never read was Joel’s,
btw (Joel via Pearl).
Scott - Red
Jimmy - X
Tango - Red
Cleo - Yellow
Bdubs - Yellow
Etho - Red
Grian - Yellow
Scar - X
Bigb - Red
Ren - X
Martyn - X
Impulse - Yellow
Pearl - Red
Joel - Red
Lizzie - Red
A Friend
Chapter Summary
Tango runs into Impulse while trying to get away from the wither. He tries to cope
with the fact that he’s in love with Scott.
Tango felt his brain may break completely any second now under the sheer amount of information
it was processing. The vast majority of that information ironically having only stemmed from a
single, simple thought.
He was in love with Scott.
And he was. He very much was. It almost made a little too much sense for that to be the case,
actually. All those time’s he felt sad whenever Scott would pull away after touching him? That was
love. That time he found him so beautiful it felt hard to take his eyes off him? Also love. The deep
guilt he felt over hurting him that only seemed to get worse with every second he spent in his
presence, the fact that he understood so many of his emotions on a deeply personal level, all those
times he stared at him, laughed with him, listened to him speak as if his voice were a beautiful
melody? You guessed it. Love.
So what the heck was he suppose to do now? Well, he didn’t quite have the time to figure that out
at the moment, given that said love had just been killed again because his overworked brain
couldn’t register the entire, fucking wither that had been coming right towards them. And not only
that, but thanks to the asshole who burned down their base last night, both his and Scott’s beds had
been destroyed, ergo, no respawning right back here for Scott. Nope. Though the blaze figured that
might have actually been for the better in this case. At least Scott was now far away from this
chaos. God, he hoped he was okay—
Tango shook his head viciously. Forget it. He could deal with his feelings and hate himself for that
later, but right now, he had to get out of here.
Tango was still on the ground. Heart racing, he made a quick attempt to get up before the wither
could fire another one of its sculls. At that point the smoke had cleared a bit and he could see
where Scott had landed. All of his things laid scattered about on the grass. He looked at the wither,
who loomed over him ominously in the sky, too high to reach with a sword and looking more than
ready to fire another skull. Tango wasted no time leaping underneath it as fast as he could, the
oncoming skull explosion just barely missing him but still being close enough to propel his body
forward from behind. Tango went up in the air once more and tried to lean forward into a barrel
roll upon landing. He took some damage then, but thanks to the withering effect, could barely tell
what he was on. He knew he must be low, however, which meant that running had to be the better
option than fighting.
A sudden thought came back into Tango’s mind. If he didn’t make it out of this with his remaining
hearts, Scott would die, for good this time.
He couldn’t let that happen, not after all the pain he went through to keep himself here. Tango
knew he was far from worth it, but if Scott wanted to stay in this game with him for as long as he
could, then he was going to continue doing everything in his power to make sure the both of them
stayed alive.
With that, Tango got back on his feet, grabbing as much of Scott’s things as he could mid-sprint
and made a break for spawn. He heard the wither fire off another scull at him from behind, but
thankfully this time, he wasn’t close enough to take any damage. Tango looked back at the mob as
he continued running. He knew that the thing was probably still going to chase him, but it was
unlikely it’d maintain interest on him once he put enough distance between them. All he had to do
was keep running. Just keep running, get to spawn, hopefully meet up with Scott again and then
maybe, just maybe , after all that was done, he could get back to focusing on what it was he was
going to do about his newly discovered feelings—
Tango moved another foot forward, and suddenly, there was nothing underneath him; nothing for
his foot to fall onto.
He snapped his head back around, only to see a wide, gaping crack underneath him, one which he
was currently plummeting to the bottom of.
It was that stupid, fucking ravine.
Tango had about three seconds to think in that moment, though most of it was waisted on being
afraid. Afraid that this was it, that after everything that had happened he was finally going to kill
Scott and it was going to be in the dumbest way possible. Kind of fitting how it was all about to
end right here, actually. This was the same ravine that took Jimmy’s second life; the one that Scott
had threatened to jump into mere minutes after Jimmy died. The one that continued to be a
nuisance in their lives but was too big to feel as though they should waste the time it would take to
cover it up completely. Well, Tango was certainly wishing they’d done that now. He wished he
had a water bucket on him too, but unfortunately, he didn’t, and neither did Scott in his inventory
thanks to him.
Guess this was it then. There was nothing to be done about it. All Tango could think of now was
what he was going to do once Scott was gone. Maybe he’d just climb back up to the top of the same
ravine and throw himself off one last time, finally leaving this game for good right along with him.
That seemed like a fitting punishment.
But Tango never got the chance to think harder on that, because right as he was about to hit the
ground, a bucket of water was placed directly underneath him. He could see a person’s hands, but
he was falling way too fast to catch anything else. All he did register in that moment was the sweet
relief of falling into a small pool of water rather than cold, hard stone.
But the relief was short lived. Tango heard the hissing and explosion noises that the wither was
making getting closer. It was still coming after him. He looked up at where he had fallen from.
Was there even any time to get out? Oh god, what was he gonna do now-
Before the blaze could decide on anything, a pair of strong arms grabbed at his sweater from
behind and yanked him into what appeared to be a dug out spot along one of the walls of the
ravine. Tango turned around, surprise quickly turning to dread—then, anger as he realized who had
grabbed him. It was dark from where he was standing now, but he still recognized that face all too
easily.
“IMPULSE-??”
“Shh!”
Impulse held a stern finger up to his lips, which Tango promptly smacked away, but still followed
the other’s instructions all the same. He watched as Impulse boarded up the section where he’d
pulled him in from with cobblestone, blocking out all of the remaining light in the pocket until he
threw up a torch.
They waited in nervous silence as the hissing of the wither grew closer. For a moment, it got to a
point where they were able to hear it just above their heads, the mob having likely been passing
over the top of the ravine. Having probably detected nothing however, it simply continued it’s
flying in the same direction, still hunting for players but not even stopping to search the ravine.
When the hissing noises had entirely faded out of earshot, only then did the both of them let out a
simultaneous sigh of relief. It didn’t take Tango long however, to remember just who he was
hiding with to begin with.
“What are you doing here??” The blaze asked, finally able to raise his voice.
“I was coming over to talk to you.” Impulse replied calmly. “Saw what happened to your base, by
the way.” He looked at the other solemnly before shifting attitudes and pointing a finger up in the
air. “Then I saw that thing emerge out of nowhere. Tried to outrun it and ended up hiding down
here.”
Tango glared at him wordlessly.
“Guess it’s a good thing I did though, right? Heh…” Impulse laughed awkwardly.
Tango was having none of it.
Without even bothering to think of some kind of response to that, the blaze immediately summoned
his pic, tore out a chunk of the stone that had been blocking off the exit, and angrily marched out of
the pocket and back into daylight.
Impulse sighed. “ Tango-“
“Nope!” Tango cut him off without even turning his head around. Impulse may have saved his life,
but that still wasn’t anything near good enough for him to consider wasting another second of his
time with him.
Unsurprisingly, Impulse didn’t take the hint, as indicated by the clear, fast-paced footsteps Tango
could still hear trailing behind him.
“Tango, I-“
“I don’t wanna hear it!!” The blaze had finally made it to one of the sides of the ravine. Wasting no
time, he grabbed a small ledge that hung over his head and searched below him for a foothold. Step
by step, he began to climb his way up the side, hoping to get out of there quickly enough to not
have to hear anymore of his ex’s nonsense.
But some hopes were just too good to be true.

“I wanted to apologize to you!” Impulse pleaded. “I- I thought over everything that’s happened
between us last night—and I regret everything I said!”
Tango finally snapped his head around, now already more than a few feet off the ground. “What
part of ‘I don’t wanna hear it’ don’t you understand?”
Impulse rolled his eyes. “I just saved you life! Can you at least hear me out??”
Tango stopped climbing.
He did not just say that…
“Ohoho—you want me to hear you out, do you?” Tango laughed darkly, bending his head over
backwards just to flash Impulse a sarcastic, pissed-off smile. “You fucked up and now you’re
looking for forgiveness, right? I wonder how that must feel? Probably hurts, doesn’t it? That I
won’t even hear you out? That I’m just straight up ignoring you before even considering what it is
you might have to say? Must feel really frustrating on your end, huh??”
Impulse’s eyes widened. He opened his mouth—only to quickly close it again after being unable to
come up with anything to fire back. Defeated eyes looked to the ground in shame, but Tango had
only caught his reaction for a second before he’d turned back around to continue his trek up the
side of the ravine.
“Goodbye, Impulse.”
Given the momentary silence that came after, Tango assumed their conversation had thankfully
ended there. He was now almost where he needed to be, one final push of his leg hoisting him up
high enough to reach the ravine’s edge…
“I know who burnt down your base.”
Tango halted his actions immediately, limbs going completely stiff. He didn’t turn his head around
this time, less Impulse see the shocked reaction likely showing on his face. He had to be lying.
There was no way he knew what he was talking about…
“It’s not Grian, like you probably think it is.”
The silence went on for a few more seconds, like some kind of waiting game to see if either
Impulse would say more or if he would admittedly show that he gave a damn. Ultimately, it was
Tango who caved first. He turned his head back around, arms and legs still gripped to the stone
wall.
“Who?”
Impulse’s mouth formed a flat line. “First, you gotta listen to me-“
Tango rolled his eyes. He knew this was a waste of time.
“Fuck off.”
He continued climbing.
“What do you have to lose other than a bit of your time?” He heard the other yell. The blaze still
didn’t listen. He knew he had more important things to focus on—
“I’m sure Scott would want to know too, don’t you think?”
He froze once more.
Scott… Oh god, Scott…
In an instance, everything he’d been trying to avoid thinking about had been shoved back to the
front of his mind. To some degree, he kind of was a little thankful to Impulse, not necessarily for
saving him from falling, but more so for showing up now of all times, his mere presence fueling
enough anger into Tango’s system for him to have completely forgotten, if just for a moment, all
the emotional baggage he’d felt towards Scott that he’d only just now properly unpacked. And no,
his stance on things weren’t any different than they had been a few minutes ago before a wither
came in out of nowhere and blew both him and his teammate sky high.
He was still in love with Scott, and he had no idea what he was suppose to do about that.
Just as it had happened the first time, Tango’s whole world went quiet, a fuzzy numbness coating
his senses as if the figurative gears in his head had stopped turning completely. He didn’t feel it
when his increasingly sweaty hand’s slipped off the rocks they were holding onto, when his legs
gave out from under him… All he really could feel, was the intense tightening in his chest as if the
air around him had become too thin to breath. For the second time in the past ten minutes, Tango
could feel his body plummeting.
And just like last time, shallow water caught his fall.
“Tango-!”
Some of it was coming back to him now. He could sense what was going on around him, a few of
his surroundings…
“Heyheyhey—it’s okay…”
The blaze felt himself being sat up, he could hear his breathing now; it was loud and rapid.
“No it’s not…” He breathed. And that was just the plain truth of things. He was not okay. He
didn’t know if things would ever be okay.
Tango supposed he should be happy. Anyone from the outside looking into this situation would
probably say exactly that, but he wasn’t. Instead, he was scared. More scared than he’d been in a
long time because currently, he’d just figured out that he was in love with his boyfriend’s ex of all
people. His ex who said boyfriend still had incredibly strong feelings for, of whom also held those
same feelings in return. It was all a very complicated situation, but one that should have still fit all
nicely together if given the right attention and communication, right? Like some damn jigsaw
puzzle, yeah?
Except there was still one piece of this puzzle that was missing. A piece that was absolutely vital,
and that was that he didn’t know if Scott loved him back.
Before last night, Tango would have thought that an easy question to answer. No, Scott did not feel
anything for him along those lines, in fact, he hardly even felt friendship for him. He’d never
referred to him as a friend, not even in private.
But he did say he liked him, and that he cared about him… a lot . And that he forgave him, at least
to some extent. And all that wasn’t even anything he’d said last night specifically, just all the
things he’d brought up in conversation at different points of the game. Last night however, Scott
said he couldn’t continue on in this game without him, that he needed him and begged him to stay.
And this morning? He not only told him how much he wanted him, but demonstrated it by
continuing to stick with him regardless of the emotional and physical pain he’d caused Scott.
regardless of how much he’d ruined his life. It was like how Jimmy had clung to him after the last
game. There were some points in their lives where things got so bad that he wouldn’t have blamed
Jimmy at all for cutting things off, but he didn’t. He never even entertained the idea. And oh god,
in some messed up way, that only made Tango love him so much more. Both knew that they
couldn’t let the other go. Neither of them were ever going anywhere.
Leave it to Scott to somehow make him change his stance on that completely, and for Scott’s sake
too. It was unthinkable.
God, he really did love them both so much…
Yeah, there was no denying after all that had passed between them during his game, especially in
the last 24 hours, that Scott felt something for him too, but love? That was a big leap. Not a
completely unsupported one, but still, it scared Tango like nothing ever had before, and it showed.
“What do you mean ‘it’s not’?” Impulse asked, his voice more soothing than Tango had heard it in
a while. Still, he didn’t reply, part of the reason for that being that he was still trying to get his
breathing under control, but also, in large part he didn’t want to actually tell Impulse what it was he
was really feeling. The confused and terrifying crisis that had been plaguing his mind all morning.
He didn’t want to, at first, but then he gained the strength to finally look at his ex directly. He saw
his eyes open wide with concern, brows furrowed, hands on his shoulders and gently shaking him
as if trying to get him to snap out of it. It almost made Tango want to laugh. Had Impulse always
been so terrible at calming him down? Did it really take having someone as caring and wonderful
as Jimmy and Scott by his side to make him realize this?
Well, it was still nice of Impulse to at least try to get through to him. At least he still cared about
him. And honestly… Throughout all the fights and the ghosting and the madness, Tango would be
lying if he said he didn’t still care about him too. He knew he couldn’t ever love Impulse the way
he loved Jimmy and the same thing went for Impulse with Bdubs. But even without that kind of
connection between them, its not as though he didn’t still want the guy in his life.
“You can tell me anything, you know...”
And there it was, nearly the same words he’d said to him the previous night. Tango knew they still
rang true; he hadn’t doubted that for a second. It was like some kind of golden, unspoken rule
between them: no matter how rough things got in their relationship, they would never spread a
secret that the other did not want to be spread. Plain and simple.
“I mean it.” Impulse went on. “I may have been a nuisance to you in other ways, but I would
never…”
He seemed to struggle to find the words before realizing that the blaze knew just as well as he did
what he was talking about. And damn it, was the offer very enticing. The thought may not have
been weighing on his mind for long, but it was still unbelievably heavy, and out of everyone still
alive in this game who he could have possibly run into right after having this revelation, the fact
that it happened to be Impulse felt almost like fate.
“You know I would never.” Impulse said, and indeed, that was more than enough to get the point
across to Tango. But not only that—it was more than enough to make him cave.
The blaze let out a shaky breath. Neither scared, nor certain in saying his next words.
“I love Scott.” He sighed defeatedly. “And I don’t know what I’m going to do about it…”
Weirdly enough, it actually felt really good to get it off his chest like this. It was like a weight had
been lifted off his shoulders, like he could finally acknowledge this ordeal out loud. Tango turned
to face the other, wondering how he might have reacted to such a statement.
To his surprise however, the man just looked confused.
Impulse frowned, tilting his head to the side. “Like, love love??”
Tango gawked at him, stunned. Then, now having fully gotten his bearings back, threw his arms
forward in a frustrated gesture that he was too tired to even put that much effort into. “Are you five
or something? Yes!” He yelled, rolling his eyes.
Rather than get mad at this, Impulse let out a laugh, defusing the situation a great deal. At this,
Tango groaned, but ultimately let out a sad laugh along with him.
They really were better off just as friends, weren’t they?
Tango tucked his knees into his body, resting his head and arms on top of them. “He’s everything I
never knew I wanted. I’ve never met another person like him and that includes Jimmy—but I still
love Jimmy! Of course I do! I just-“ He sighed, hiding a portion of his face by tucking it into his
arms. “I love them both…”
The silence between them lasted for only a moment, and once again, Impulse’s response was far
from what Tango had expected.
“You know, I’m pretty sure Scott’s still in love with Jimmy too.”
Unexpected, but not unheard.
“I got that, dude.” Tango bit. “You kinda made a whole scene about it yesterday.”
“Right…” Impulse winced. “In case it wasn’t obvious, I didn’t actually mean any of that.”
Tango narrowed his eyes at him.
“—Most of that…”
The blaze sneered. “You expect me to believe you were just looking out for me when you called
Jimmy a curse? I thought you guys were cool with each other. At least before Double Life!”
Impulse turned his head to the ground again with that all too familiar look of guilt. “I guess in some
parts… I was jealous.”
Tango leaned back in surprise. “Of what?”
Impulse shrugged. “Of how much less often you had to deal with things.” He started. Tango saw
the other’s complexion grow darker as he brought one of his hands up to run down his tense face.
“It was 24/7 with me Tango, alright? I didn’t have another server to run off too. Not one that I’d
feel welcome on, anyway. And even if I did, it’s not like I could just leave Bdubs.”
Tango came into this ready for another yelling match, but instead he just frowned. He hated even
considering Impulse’s argument, but he did have a point. When he put it that way, he knew their
circumstances must have been vastly different from each other. Noticeably, unlike the first time
they’d spoken during this game, Impulse wasn’t accusing him of abandoning him back then, he
was simply filling in the gaps of what he’d experienced while he was gone. And for some reason,
that just made Tango feel worse.
“We wanted to wait the whole thing out, same as you.” Impulse continued.
“But you’re still waiting it out, aren’t you? At least emotionally.” Tango replied, now surprisingly
feeling a little more sympathetic towards his ex despite everything.
“I never stopped…”
Tango let out a long sigh. Somewhere deep down, he probably already knew that he was never
going to stop caring about Impulse. They’d always been more friends to each other than they’d
ever been exes or partners, and they both knew that, yet somehow between the six months that had
passed and especially the week that went by during Trust Life, they’d evolved into something
more akin to bitter, petty enemies. And that just sucked. Tango didn’t want an enemy, or a partner,
or an ex. He just wanted his friend back and so did Impulse. Why did either of them have to make
this so much more complicated than it needed to be?
“You had it rougher than anyone. I’ll admit that much.” Tango spoke quietly. “I get it now how
you had Bdubs to worry about on top of yourself. I mean, things sucked for me still, but it’s not like
Jimmy’s friends had as much drama circulating around as ours did.”
Something Scott had told him during their conversation that morning suddenly came to mind,
Tango’s realization on what Scott had meant back then being as morbidly funny to him as it was
sad.
“—I guess I have Scott to thank for that, actually.”
Well it was true, wasn’t it? Neither he nor Jimmy ever had to suffer through any major drama on
the Empires server only because Scott, despite how upset he really was over the breakup, still kept
it all fairly low key.
“You shouldn’t have to thank him for acting like a decent human being.” Impulse said.
“Maybe.” Tango replied. “I still feel like I owe him something though.”
“You know, that’s kind of how I figured it out with him, actually.” Impulse chuckled tensely,
eyeing Tango in a way that made him feel as though his ex was monitoring him for signs of
offense. “I took a look at how his situation paralleled ours and figured that if he wasn’t pulling the
same kind of nonsense that Zed was, then maybe it was because he still felt something for Jimmy.”
Tango gave him a side glance, eyes deadpanning.
“—And of course I knew I could just as easily have been reaching with that theory, but then I
actually talked to the guy.”
“And…?”
Impulse swallowed, now looking at the blaze directly.
“Tango, I think Scott loves both of you.”
They held eye contact for a second. Then, Tango shook his head, smiling sadly as he placed his
head in his hands.
“You’re just saying that to humor me…”

“No, I mean it.” Impulse insisted. “He got so defensive when I brought you up. Like, he yelled in
my face and all that.”
“He yells for a lot of reasons.” The blaze countered. “What’d you even say to him?”
Impulse sucked in a sharp breath; Tango could already tell this wasn’t going to be good.
“I maybe, might have—assumed he was only sticking around with you so that he could get closer
to Jimmy…?”
The blaze shot his head up, raising an annoyed eyebrow up at the other.
“Which—obviously wasn’t the case! I realize that now!” Impulse went on. “Like, that man did
some barking after I said that, I tell ya—he was so angry over the fact that I’d even so much as play
around with the idea that he was with you for his own benefits and not cause he just liked you as a
person. I mean, he never outright said that. He was actually blushing a lot while trying to defend
you, more than he noticed I think. Kinda like he was embarrassed to admit that he liked you so
much.”
By the end of that restatement Tango found his mouth handing open just a little. Some part of him
wondered if Impulse was either lying or exaggerating those series of events, but another part also
reminded him that the man was apparently here to talk things out with him calmly and that there
wouldn’t have been much of a reason for him to do that.
Impulse, who now had his gaze focused back on the blaze, seemed somewhat put off by his
physical reaction to what he was saying, but otherwise unbothered. “I know, I know. Another reach
with that one, but still…”
Tango swallowed. “That’s- That’s a lot to process…”
It really was. First there was what happened this morning where Scott refused to leave him, and
now Tango was finding out about this. Just how intricate were Scott’s thoughts about him? His
feelings too? Tango wished he could know what the man was thinking, and a lot of the time he did
courtesy of how much time he’d been spending with him, but still, that was only surface level stuff.
He couldn’t even begin to navigate whatever complex feelings Scott might have for him, if any.
“I don’t know man.” Tango rested a hand on his cheek. “He has every reason under the sun to hate
my guts.”
“But he still chose to stick around with you, didn’t he?”
“More than that.” Tango’s breath hitched. This was yet another thing he knew Impulse would
understand the significance of, despite the fact that he had never been able to accomplish it
himself. “My flames went off after I saw what happened to our base.”
He looked at the other, who still seemed to be listening closely.
“He-“ Now Tango had a hand to his mouth, hesitating to say it as if it weren’t any less unbelievable
to him than it was last night. “—He put them out Pulse, they were worse than they’d ever been and
he put them out all on his own by begging me not to hurt him, because he didn’t want me to lose
my final life…”
Impulse, understandably, seemed surprised by this. Of course he did. He knew exactly what
something like this meant to him.
“But I still hurt him. I hurt him so badly. And then we woke up and I just kept hurting him, and
still, all he wanted to do was stay with me.”
The other took in a small breath, then let out a light chuckle. “And you don’t think he loves you?”
Tango blushed. He didn’t know what to think. “I think something like that would be too good to be
true.”
“Sometimes it is.” Impulse replied, now looking up at the sky fondly. “But not always.”
Tango wondered if he was thinking of Double Life again, how he and Bdubs found love in each
other. He knew some of what occurred between them, so did everyone else who played that
season. But apart from that, they were all only left to guess on what could have happened with
them during those private moments that made them grow so close. Tango thought that maybe, if he
and Impulse ever were to be part of each other’s lives again as largely as they were in the past, he
would ask him about it. But that was a different game, and a story for another time.
“Why did you want to leave this game so badly?”
Impulse’s expression sunk. He wasn’t quick to reply and stayed silent for a moment.
“Why did you even come back?”
The man sighed. “It was Bdubs’ idea.” He admitted. “He wanted things to feel normal again. And
I… Well, I just wanted him to be happy.”
More silence.
“I don’t deserve him, Tango.”
Tango shook his head. “Don’t say that…”
“It’s true. I knew that if I went and had a breakdown he’d spend this entire game at my side trying
to get me to feel better instead of actually playing and having fun.” Impulse sucked in a shaky
breath. “And I tried to keep it together, but I just couldn’t. I couldn’t even do that one thing for him,
not even for a few days.”
For the first time in a long time, Tango found himself leaning into the other, resting a hand on his
shoulder in some small attempt to comfort him and show he was listening.
“I never wanted to die.” Impulse said. “I mean, I did, but not because I was fed up with playing, or
cause I wanted to go home…”
Unexpectedly, Tango’s heart dropped at his next words.
“I just wanted to go to the void. To stop feeling things for as long as possible. I thought it would
have been a comfort.”
Despite all the other had told him, some part of Tango was still desperate to understand more,
whether for his sake or for Impulse’s, he did not know. “Then why are you still here?” He asked.
Impulse shrugged. “I didn’t want to leave things the way they were between us.”
And now the bitterness was back. At least he was being honest, but still, hadn’t he already tried
something like this earlier in the game? Hadn’t he tried to get in touch with Impulse so as to not
leave things so terribly between them?? What gave Impulse the right to want to try and be the
bigger person now? Did he finally feel guilty enough after everything he’d said? Was that how
much it took for him to realize that he was being the unreasonable one here?
“Sounds familiar.” The blaze muttered. And Impulse seemed to know exactly where the sudden
bite in his voice was coming from.
“Tango, I’m so sorry…”
He hated how much the other’s words were starting to weigh on him. Sure he’d been put through a
lot, but that never gave him any right to be a terrible person about it. Scott was a good example of
just that, how having bad things happen to him didn’t have to make him bad. Then again, here was
Impulse, slowly, but surely, realizing exactly that. Here he was, now actively trying to make things
right again. Was this really something Tango was ready for? Was he really about to give his ex yet
another chance at helping him heal their relationship?
They locked eyes again, and for once, Tango felt as though he wasn’t looking at a stranger, or an
ex, or an enemy… he was just looking at an old friend, one who he struggled to picture his life
without.
Damn it all, he was going to give hm another chance, wasn’t he?
“Alright.” Tango groaned. “I want to give you one more chance here, but you gotta earn it, okay?”
Of course, Impulse looked surprised at this response, god knew they both were.
“Okay.” He said quickly. “Of course.”

Tango nodded. Now, they were getting somewhere. But he still listened to Impulse for a reason
and now it was his turn to hold up his end of their deal.
“First, tell me who started the fire.”
Impulse cringed. “Okay, but, um, you should know that I’m not 100 percent on this, it’s really just
a strong theory—“
Tango gawked at him. “Dude!”
“—A really, really strong theory, okay? Like I’m almost certain!”
Tango groaned even louder, but ultimately still gestured for him to continue.
“…It was Ren.”
The blaze was stunned into silence.
Well, at least he was being truthful about one thing; he definitely did not expect that answer at all.
“He died last night, did you know that?”
“What??” Tango reached in his pocket to check his comm’s message history. Sure enough, he had.
ImpulseSV was slain by Smajor1995
Renthedog died
What also surprised him was the death that had flashed on his screen earlier that morning that he’d
been too distracted to fully notice.
PearlescentMoon was blown up by wither
Smallishbeans died
Still, his mind focused on the first message. Scott killed Impulse??
“But- but when-?”
“He did it after you left.” Impulse replied, having fully anticipated what his next question was
going to be. “He was so pissed at me, and I guess Ren too?—that he finished the job.”
Tango just continued to stare at his screen.
Impulse let out a light laugh. “Honestly, and you still say he holds no strong feelings for you…”
Tango shook his head quickly, snapping it back upward as he put his device back in his pocket. He
still needed to focus on the task at hand. “Can you just- tell me why you think it’s Ren?”
Impulse quieted, nodding slowly. “You know that flower garden I showed you the first time you
came over?”
“Yeah?” Tango replied. “It looked really nice. What does that have to do with anything?”
“Well, did you still see it around when you were there last night?”
He thought for a second. No actually, no he hadn’t. All he did see were choppy bits of randomly
scattered wheat all over the ground. He hadn’t given it much thought, likely because of how
nervous he’d been in that moment, but thinking back on it, it did seem a little strange to him.
“No, I didn’t.” The blaze answered. “What happened?”
Impulse rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “Scott happened, apparently.”
“What??” Tango felt as though he might have to take a break if the other continued to come at him
with all these surprises.
“He burnt most of it down after that first conversation we had cause he was mad at me.” Impulse
elaborated.
“I didn’t know it was him at first and I don’t think he ever meant to burn down the garden, only the
wheat I planted just to get back at me, but fire did what fire does and it ended up spreading…”
Tango suddenly remembered a single, off-handed comment Cleo had made to him days ago.
“According to Ren, some maniac set their front lawn on fire for no apparent reason.”
No way…
“How do you know all this?” Tango asked, still somewhat skeptical.
“Martyn was watching him from the top story window. Saw the whole thing go down.”
“And he didn’t try to stop him?”
“Well, he was still mad at Ren at the time.” Impulse shrugged. “But after that night, when him and
Ren made up, he told him everything. Martyn seemed to have gotten over it at that point, but I
think once Ren knew what was up, he wanted to do something about it. Nothing big, just petty
revenge for petty revenge y’know? But then…”
Tango’s gaze fell. “Then you killed Martyn.”
Impulse nodded shamefully “And sent Ren to red…” He added. “And you know how he gets when
he’s red.”
Neither of them needed to be reminded of that. Ren always seemed to get a bit too into it whenever
he turned red, which had never caused anyone any problems in the past of course, but now…
“That’s why he went for Scott when we were in the nether.” Tango realized. “That’s why he
wanted to start a fight so badly…” He clenched his fists in his lap, baring his teeth in sudden anger
as everything that Impulse had told him began to click into place and make a little too much sense.
“Was that not enough for him??” He yelled. “That crazy bastard-!”
“Hey.” Impulse put a hand to his shoulder, cooling his rage, if only temporarily. “Come on dude,
I’m sure to him he thought it was all still in good fun. Think of how many times someone’s base
has gotten destroyed by another party in these games. It’s all just for laughs; no one ever holds any
grudges over it, so what good would it do for you to start now?”
Admittedly, he was right. How was Ren suppose to know what that place had meant to him and
Scott? burning it was a bit excessive, but Ren was always excessive when he was red and that had
never been a problem for anyone before. If anything, they’d only ever found it funny. Not to
mention that Scott had arguably been the one to throw the first punch, even if he didn’t mean to.
Maybe the garden that Ren built had meant a lot to him too, he had made it for Martyn, after all.
Tango tried to let it slide, at least for now. Ren was dead so it’s not like he could even do anything
about all this if he wanted to. It didn’t matter. Not right now, anyway.
“How do you even know what Martyn saw? Or that he passed down that information to Ren?”
“We had a long talk about it after Bdubs managed to talk me down from trying to leave the game.”
Impulse spoke.
Tango raised an eyebrow; Impulse crossed his arms.
“Okay, ‘ argument’ is probably a more accurate description, but still, once we’d both calmed
down, he told me I should count myself lucky that he already had someone he wanted to take his
anger out on. I asked him to elaborate—and, yeah…” He stared at the ground, looking guilty again.
“I know I should have told you, but I didn’t think he’d pull something like this…”
“No,” Tango breathed. “it’s fine. I wouldn’t have thought that either.”
Ren was going to get one hell of a talking to whenever he saw the guy again, but other than that,
there wasn’t much left to consider on the matter, as frustrating as that was.
“So that means he must’ve died right as he was in the middle of setting everything on fire last
night, right?”
“That, or sometime close, yeah.”
He supposed that explained why neither he, nor Scott saw any of Ren’s items lying around when
they got there. Either they despawned before they showed up or maybe they just scattered and fell
into one of the many fires that had been lit and burnt up the second he vanished.
“On the bright side,” Impulse’s voice picked up. “Scott kinda already got his revenge on him in
advance.”
Tango slumped his shoulders. “But Ren got the last laugh…”
Impulse frowned. Tango said nothing. He’d wanted to know who’d set his and Scott’s base on fire
so badly, but knowing the truth felt bittersweet. Though he guessed that was better than outright
rage. He had no idea how he’d be able to handle that again without Scott here to calm him down.
Great. Now he was thinking about Scott again…
“Oh thank GOD-“
Both his and Impulse’s heads shot upwards towards the sound of Bdubs’ voice. Tango could see
the man’s head poking out over the edge of the ravine. He pulled it away momentarily only for a
stream of water to replace it, which Bdubs then jumped into, eagerly sliding and splashing his way
down the ravine wall until he reached the bottom.
“I saw the wither; are you guys okay??” Bdubs asked loudly.
They both stood up, Impulse being the first to answer. “We’re fi-“
Before he could even finish, Bdubs had already run over to his boyfriend, practically leaping into
his arms to surprise him with a crushing hug. “Don’t scare me like that!!”
Impulse seemed to get over his initial surprise easily, slowly wrapping his arms around the other
and sinking into the hug himself. “I’m sorry…” He breathed, shortly pulling away from Bdubs to
press his forehead against his and gently close his eyes.
“How are ya feeling?” Bdubs asked more calmly now as the couple rocked back and forth in their
embrace as if they’d down it a thousand times.
“I’m okay.” Impulse whispered. He frowned, opening his eyes again. “And you don’t- you don’t
have to keep worrying about me, alright? I won’t try to hurt myself again, I promise.”
Bdubs seemed to wordlessly acknowledge the other, humming to himself quietly. “I missed you
this morning…”
“I haven’t been gone for that long.” Impulse smiled. “And you probably just missed my back rubs
anyway.”
Bdubs laughed. “I missed both.”
Tango kept watching their reunion patiently, a bit awkward but still weirdly entranced. He didn’t
think he’d ever seen Impulse like this before—so calm and content, as if all the worries he’d just
spilled to him had vanished from his mind completely, at least, when Bdubs was around.
Which was why Tango felt even worse upon taking a step forward, accidentally creating a loud
splash as he stepped into the new puddle of water that Bdubs’ stream had created. He saw the two
look up at him as if only just now remembering that he was there.
Tango laughed sheepishly. “I don’t meant to interrupt, but I was on my way to spawn.” As long as
he had their attention, he figured he might as well offer. “Did you guys maybe want to come with
me?”
Impulse seemed to think it over for a second before smiling again. “You know what? Sure.” He
answered, checking for Bdubs’ approval and seeing him nod in return. “I still need to talk to Scott,
anyway. Plus it’s about time I stopped acting like a literal hermit, right?”
Tango could only assume that he wanted to apologize to Scott as well, though he got the feeling
that Scott wouldn’t have accepted it as “easily” as he did. Still, Impulse had to start somewhere,
didn’t he? Hopefully he could at least keep Scott from outright killing him again if things really
came down to that.
With that, the three of them finally made their way back out of the cliff, a quick look around
confirming that there was still no wither in sight. Tango tried to keep a quick pace as they all made
their way to spawn.
“So we all agree this was Grian, right?” Bdubs asked. Tango didn’t think it would have taken too
long for any of them to finally address that topic. It was just too insane not to.
“Oh absolutely.” Impulse nodded, as did Tango. “Unless anyone else decides to step forward on
this, I’m blaming Grian for this one. You gotta admit, it’s very on-brand for him.”
Tango agreed. “You know a bunch of us found a wither scull in his inventory after we killed him in
the nether, right?”
Bdubs gasped. “Ohhhh…” He seethed. “Oh he is SO going down for this!”
Him and Impulse laughed. Maybe getting some more revenge on Grian could help satiate his
lingering anger towards Ren, though the blaze knew that objective wasn’t nearly as important to
him as finding Scott first. Which evidently, he did still want to do despite how deeply he still
thought the man would be better off without him. But they could decide on how to go about things
once he got to him. At the very least, Tango knew he wasn’t going to last long without armor and
food, especially with a wither still running around the server. Once he gave him his stuff back and
they got to somewhere safe, then they could talk.
They really did need to talk…
Come to think of it, now that he wasn’t running for his life anymore, it’d probably be best to send
Scott a quick message just to let him know he was on his way.
Tango reached for his comm again, typing a short message into the chat as he walked.
<Tango> Scott I have your things and I’m on my way to spawn. Everything okay?
Tango waited for a response.
And waited.
And waited…
Nothing. Not even dots to show he was typing. Tango felt worried, but more than that, he was
confused. Was Scott in the middle of something? Was he mad at him? What was going on?
After a while, the blaze tried to relax. Looking at the screen wasn’t going to change whatever was
going on. He placed the device back in his pocket. Scott would probably respond eventually.
Hopefully… Worrying did nothing though, so why should he bother? All he really did need to
focus on was getting back to spawn as quickly as possible.
The blaze turned to Impulse, trying to busy his thoughts by talking about anything else. “So I take
it you’re not going to the void just yet?”
He saw Bdubs flash his partner a look of concern. Tango winced. He knew Bdubs had to have
already known about this since he was the one to keep Impulse from jumping off the roof of the
Skyscraper a fifth time, but he definitely still could have chosen a less uncomfortable topic to bring
up.
Surprisingly however, Impulse didn’t seem bothered by it, giving his boyfriend a calm, reassuring
smile before turning back to Tango. “No.” He answered. “Not anymore. I want to at least try to
stick the rest of this game out.”
Tango couldn’t help but internally laugh at the irony of that. The fact that Impulse was still
standing on yellow after being the root cause of almost all of his teammate’s deaths was as funny
as it was unfair and as much as the blaze knew that Martyn didn’t deserve any of this, he still
couldn’t help but feel a small, guilty satisfaction over the fact that Ren had zero control over how
long he ended up lasting this season. That ought to serve him right for attacking Scott and burning
his base down. Come to think of it, he’s probably rolling in his metaphorical grave at the moment.
If Ren and Martyn were listening in as ghosts right now, they’d probably be pretty pissed—
Tango’s body went stiff. He stopped walking.
He suddenly recalled everything he’d just confessed to Impulse.
“I love Scott.”
All of it having been said completely out loud—where anyone who decided to become a ghost and
spectate after dying could have been watching.
“And I don’t know what I’m going to do about it…”
Fuck.
“You alright there Tango?” Bdubs turned his head around, quick to notice he’d suddenly trailed
behind them.
For what had to have been the thousandth time that morning, Tango was having an internal
meltdown.
There was no way any ghosts could have been spectating just then, right? He knew what his
friends were like. If anything, they’d be watching any of the way more interesting stuff going down
instead, like the entire damn wither that was currently flying around and destroying things! Surely
that would be what everyone would choose to hover around, right?? And that was even if anyone
chose to stick around as a ghost at all! For all he knew, they could have all just chosen to go to
sleep in the void and wait till the game had finished… as unlikely as that would be.
There were currently four people dead. That meant four potential ghosts roaming around if he
included Jimmy, even though the void seemed like the obvious choice he’d make under these
circumstances. Tango did know his boyfriend well, that he was certain of.
But what if he didn’t know him as well as he thought he did? He’d been wrong to assume he’d
gotten over Scott, after all. He could be wrong in other respects as well. Oh god—what if Jimmy
had chosen to become a ghost and had been spectating him and Scott this entire time?? What if he
already knew everything—!
Tango felt a hand being placed on his shoulder. He looked to his side and saw Impulse, his
eyebrow raised in slight concern, but otherwise seeming completely unaware of what he was
thinking or why he’d stopped walking.
“Tango…?” He asked again. “Are you alright?”
Tango breathed in deeply. Now was not the time to be panicking again.
“Yeah.” He said, starting up his walk again. “C’mon. Let’s keep going…”
Bdubs and Impulse still seemed confused by his reaction, but they continued walking none the
less. Tango was grateful they didn’t ask any more questions, but even so, those would have been
the least of his worries.
A dark, devastating realization reached the front of Tango’s thoughts, and that was that it didn’t
actually matter if there were any ghosts listening in on his confession or not. He’d already done
enough damage by voicing his love for Scott out loud. Now, no matter what happened, regardless
of who may or may not have been listening in, he’d still have to tell Scott the truth after this game
ended. Even if no one said a thing once they were all together again, there’d be no way for him to
know for sure if anyone else had heard what he’d said without asking them directly and likely
giving himself away in the process. He’d be stuck forever wondering if one of his friends heard
what he’d said. If they’d already told Scott or if they’d decided to keep silent. Being stuck
wondering on if or when Scott would find out would be torturous. That was no way for Tango to
live, and if someone did tell Scott, then that was certainly no way for him to find out about this.
Right in that moment, Tango made a final decision. Scott would know his true feelings for him by
the end of Trust Life whether he wanted him to or not and it would be through him and him alone.
No one else. Less he be stuck waiting forever for the other shoe to drop…
He Knows
Chapter Summary
Scott and Joel end up at spawn due to both their beds being destroyed. Joel lets slip
something he probably shouldn’t have.
Chapter Notes
One moment, Scott was flying through the air backwards from an explosion caused by a random
wither. The next, he was landing on his back, head throbbing as if he could still hear all the noises
the mob was making going off around him, but he wasn’t in the woods anymore. As Scott moved
to shake his head and open his eyes, looking around, he could clearly see that he was at spawn
now. And apparently he wasn’t the only one there either.
“Oh. Hey Scott.” Joel looked up from his comm and made an emotionless nod at him. He was
sitting down as well and didn’t look any worse for wear despite the series of explosions that had
apparently killed off the both of them at around the same time. Looking down at his hands, Scott
could also see that he no longer had any burn marks from where Tango had dealt him damage with
his fire, nor any markings in general for that matter. At least that was one good thing that came out
of this.
Scott groaned, bracing his body to stand up before walking the short distance over to his unlikely
companion. “Joel?” He asked, looking down at him. “What the heck is going on?”
“You tell me.” Joel shrugged his shoulders, still looking as calm and uncaring about their situation
as ever. “You just got blasted by that wither, right?”
“I- yeah…?” Scott looked at his comm to confirm it. Indeed, both of them had died to the wither
within seconds of each other. Scott went ahead and guessed that Joel’s previous bed must have
gotten blown up before he did, otherwise he wouldn’t have spawned here too.
“Any particular reason why you were lingering near my base?”
Scott tilted his head. “I wasn’t? He replied. “I was near my base when me and Tango were
attacked.”
What was left of it, anyway.
Now, Joel had finally shown some transparency in his emotions. He stood up as well, eyes shifting
in confusion. “But… You died right after me? And I was at my base when I died, so…?”
They looked back down at their comms, then back up at each other, the both of them growing even
more confused. Scott scrolled through his recent messages. Sure enough, Grian had gotten the
‘Withering Heights’ achievement, although according to its time stamp, it seemed to have been
awarded to him an oddly lengthy time of fifteen minutes ago.
“It was by the same wither—right?” Scott asked nervously. “You-“
It ended up hitting them at the same time.
“Oh fuck me-“ Joel put his head in his hands.
“There’s two of them-??” Scott yelled in the same instance.
This was just ridiculous.
Scott recalled the events that led up to Tango finding a wither scull scattered about in Grian’s
things. The culprit for this was clear to him and that understanding only served to piss him off and
confuse him even more. How did Grian manage to construct two of these things so quickly?? Did
he just set one off in one location and run to the other quickly enough to get it up at around the
same time? Did he simply set both of them off in the same location and try to leave fast enough so
as to not get chased? Did he have an accomplice? If so, who??
And worst of all, why did he have to go and do this now of all times? Grian was still a yellow life
and although doing something like this wasn’t technically against the rules, something as extreme
as setting loose two whole withers still went pretty hard against the game’s integrity depending on
who you asked. Rules aside, Scott was also very disappointed to have been ripped away from
Tango so suddenly.
Shoot… Tango. He was still back there, wasn’t he?

Without any explanation, Scott immediately turned around and started walking towards the nearest
tree he could find, which was a fair distance away given that he was now in a planes biome rather
than a forest, but that didn’t stop him from marching over to it with swift urgency.
“Hey where do you think you’re going?” Joel turned around with him, sounding confused.
“Back to Tango.” Scott muttered, decidedly uncaring on whether or not the other had heard him.
“You mean back to where that wither came from? With no armor or food?”
Apparently Joel had heard him. Scott still ignored him all the same. Now having reached the tree,
he started ripping loose strips of bark off it, beginning the first step in a long series of events that
had been played out for as long as time had existed. First he’d get enough to make a table, then
he’d make some wood tools, then some stone ones, and maybe he’d be able to make them quickly
enough to get back to Tango in time to—“
“Look.” Joel sighed. Scott noticed his voice was now much closer to him, having apparently
followed him all the way over to the tree. “Lizzie says her and Pearl are on their way now. I’m
sure Tango is too.”
Scott finally stopped his actions and turned to look at the other. He was waving his comm around
lazily, showing the messages from his teammate’s he’d just received.
“So have a seat, relax; at least we’re away from all that madness now, yeah?” Joel shot him a smile
that seemed way too at ease given their situation.
Still somewhat uncaring of Joel’s suggestions, Scott promptly rolled his eyes and turned back
around to continue what he was doing.
“Or… don’t, I guess.” Joel folded his arms over his chest. “What are you even trying to do
anyway?”
By now, Scott had made a table and placed it on the ground. “I’m just making some tools in case I
need them.” He responded automatically without making eye contact.
“You’re only gonna waste more energy without food.” Joel argued.
At that point, Scott had stopped replying got him. He was right about one thing though, he
shouldn’t be wasting his energy on anything unnecessary until he figured out a way to get food,
and that included on talking to him. Scott had nothing against the guy, but someone getting in his
way was the last thing he needed right now.
Then, as if reading his mind, Joel finally decided to make himself useful, or at least try to. “Here,
how about I help?” He said, moving to grab the remaining wood off the tree. Scott wasn’t entirely
sure what he was intending to do or why he thought that nabbing wood from one of the only trees
around could be considered “helping”, but he still let Joel do what he wanted regardless. It’s not
like he owned the tree or anything. Just as long as he stopped bothering him—
“So, how do you think Grian got all those wither Sculls?”
Scott let out a loud groan. He threw his wood down on the table harshly, a flash of light appearing
as he manifested a wooden pic. “I don’t know, Joel. I really don’t.” He lied, despite having a
decent guess at exactly how he did it.
“Well I mean, you did just die to one.” Joel shrugged. “Figured you’d care at least a little.”
“I do care.” Scott snapped, still focused on his crafting. “I just have bigger things to worry about
right now.”
“Like Tango, right?”
Scott paused.
“You seem pretty desperate to get back to him and help him despite how long that’s probably
gonna take.”
He clenched his fists and shot Joel a fed-up look. “Can we talk about literally anything else?”
“Fine.” Joel rolled his eyes.
“Thank you.”
They both continued to work in silence for a few moments, before Joel went and ruined things once
more.
“…So, would talking about Jimmy be better, or worse-?”
“Joel—!!” Scott slammed the items he was holding onto the table once more in frustration. What
was Joel’s problem today? Neither he nor Tango wanted to bring up what had been going on with
them yesterday, so why did Joel suddenly think he’d be willing to share anything today? And more
to the point, why did he even want to know so badly??
“Are you still mad at me for knocking you down to yellow?” Joel asked cautiously.
Scott finally made eye contact with him, the other’s expression displaying a certain sincereness in
what he was asking. It was frustrating, really. If Joel had just been trying to mess with him like he
sometimes did, then telling him ‘no’ would have been a lot easier.
Instead, Scott sighed defeatedly. In some part, he knew that Joel was right and there really was
nothing to be done right now other than wait for their teammates to come get them. He also didn’t
want him to go around thinking that he was still genuinely upset at him for something like that.
Joel had followed them back to spawn yesterday, hadn’t he? He’d done as they’d asked and
apologized on top of that. There was no need to hold any kind of grudge with him anymore, not that
Scott had much of one to begin with.
“I think I forfeited the right to be mad about you killing me the moment I killed Ren while I was
still on yellow.” Scott admitted calmly.
“Ah,” Joel laughed. “So that wasn’t in self defense. Interesting…”
Scott hadn’t read any of the replies that might have come in the chat after he’d attacked Impulse
last night, but he could figure well enough that the response to yet another yellow life killing
someone must have been hectic, to say the least.
But Joel didn’t ask about any of the details regarding that fight like any normal person would.
Instead, he tried to turn the subject back to Scott specifically.
“So why are you so upset then? Surely the red life instincts haven’t taken over you yet?” He asked.
Images of fire and violence, touching and closeness flooded Scott’s head. He tried is best to
suppress a shudder, whether it be one of fear or of desire, he did not know for sure.
No, his red life instincts hadn’t taken over him yet, but something else had. A fondness for Tango
that didn’t feel real. A desire for him to stay in his life so desperate he’d burn for it. Something so
strong it felt on par with his feelings for Jimmy—and that was saying something. Something
terrifying…
Joel leaned in closer to him, his next words coming out small and hesitant. “Is it something else I
did-? ”
“You know? Not everything has to be about you, Joel!” Scott bit, snapping out of his trance.
Joel pulled back, scoffing. “Well it sure as hell felt like everything was about me yesterday…”
Was he still upset about that whole thing? Really? Scott assumed that intervention hadn’t been as
much of a big deal anymore considering how it had ended at least relatively peacefully. Or maybe
this was just Joel trying to excuse his line of questioning? If so, it was a pretty unusual way of
going about it.
“All we did was bring you there. The actual talking part was your choice and your choice alone.”
Scott argued.
Joel tilted his head down, frowning. “I suppose you’re right about that.”
Scott stepped back slightly, grateful that the man had seemed to accept his fault that easily. With
that settled, he turned back to the crafting table, arms grabbing at it ready to pick it up and store it
away in his inventory.
“So what has been going on with you and Tango-?”
Oh for fucks sake.
“Oh. My. God. Joel!” Scott dropped the table in favor of glaring at Joel menacingly.
“What??”
“Why are you so desperate to talk to me?”
“I don’t know, Scott!” Joel clenched his hands at his sides, taking a large step forward. “Maybe it’s
because I haven’t had a one-on-one conversation with you in months and I haven’t the faintest clue
what’s been going on in your life and I missed you!”
Scott was about to respond, but he came up with nothing. His mouth simply hung in the air half
open and confused.
He wasn’t wrong. They hadn’t talked about anything really meaningful to each other during this
game, or for the past few months in general. It wasn’t because they were on bad terms, they just…
hadn’t really put in the effort like they used to. Well that, and of course, there was the fact that Joel
interacted with Jimmy a little too closely for Scott’s comfort.
Was it really that simple? Was this why Joel wouldn’t get off his back now that they were finally
alone?
“We’ve talked.” Scott said. It was a truthful statement in every way.
“I know.” Joel agreed.
“We’ve talked plenty…” Scott repeated.

They both stood there in silence.
Scott knew that wasn’t a good enough answer for Joel, and he knew he had no right to blame him
for wanting more of an explanation, even if it was one they were already more or less aware of. So
Joel’s next question didn’t surprise him in the slightest. In fact, he was already prepared for it, as
hesetant as he was to answer.
“Why-?”
“Because you were too close to Jimmy,” Scott interrupted. “that’s why. Happy?”
Joel looked at him sadly. “But Tango isn’t?”
Scott looked at the other’s disappointed expression, remaining silent for a second. That’s when he
realized what Joel was actually upset about. He had been fine with giving him some space in the
past, they were both alright with that, but now Scott had been so clearly socializing with Tango and
spending more time with him despite how close he was to Jimmy himself. If that was how things
were between him and the person he’d evidently hated in the past, then what was stopping him
now from being more normal with Joel again? With any of his friends?
“I know it doesn’t alway seem like it, but I worry about both of you.” Joel continued, his words
only making Scott feel guiltier.
“I know.” Scott said. “I worry about you too. Why do you think I dragged you to spawn
yesterday?”
Joel let out a half-hearted laugh.
Scott tried to smile a little. “How’s all that been going, by the way?”
His friend frowned again, rolling his eyes. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
Scott knew he was just being petty, as if to say ‘I asked you first, remember?’ And it was a fair
request. Though that still didn’t make it something Scott felt particularly eager to answer. In all
honestly, he didn’t quite know what he was suppose to tell Joel anyway. A lot of different things
had taken place between him and Tango. For whatever reason, he figured he’d just default to the
last thing that did happen and how he honestly felt about it.
“I’m scared, Joel.”
Scott nearly slapped a hand over his mouth. He did no t intend his thoughts to come out sounding
like that, as honest as that answer actually was.
Joel’s brows furrowed in concern. “Of…?”
“Of how I feel about- about Tango.” Scott sighed. He leaned an arm back, propping himself up
against part of the table. Surprisingly, for once, it felt good to get something like this off his chest.
What happened this morning did feel like an enormous deal to him, after all.
“He said he was sorry for what happened with Jimmy.”
Joel seemed surprised at this, but continued listening. “And let me guess, you were still so mad
about it that you yelled at him?”
The comment wasn’t meant to be accusing; it was just an assumption made based on how Scott
had acted around Tango in the past. By all means, Joel gave no indication that he thought this
potential reaction to be an unreasonable one. The problem was, that wasn’t what happened at all.
“Worse.” Scott said, eyes scanning the ground as if he were unable to comprehend the very words
he was speaking. “I think I forgave him…”
“Oh shit…” Joel inhaled sharply. “So what now then?”
“That’s the scary part.” Scott admitted. “I don’t know what happens now.”
“Well… Shouldn’t everything at least be alright for you?”

Scott stood upright again, raising an eyebrow. “What do you mean by that?”
Joel shrugged. “You forgave Tango, you’ve moved on from Jimmy…” His tone seemed
optimistic, but also unsure. “Now you can finally be free of all this, right?”
They both stared at each other.
Scott said nothing.
“ Right? ” Joel repeated, a little desperate-sounding.
He almost wanted to laugh at that statement. Apparently there was at least one person on this
server who he ended up fooling. Joel didn’t seem to have any idea that he was still in love with
Jimmy and while that was an interesting tidbit for him to discover, it was also something that was
completely worthless to him. Scott had almost stopped caring entirely what his friends—or anyone
else on this server for that matter—thought about his still lingering feelings for his ex boyfriend.
Several people, both close and more distant from him, had already figured it out. It was only a
matter of time before everyone else knew. Although that didn’t make the assumptions that Joel had
made on him feel any less invasive.
With that in mind, Scott offered nothing in response to Joel other than an annoyed grimace,
knowing full well that he’d figured out his answer to his question already just from his initial lack
response.
“This is why I didn’t want to talk about this…” Scott shook his head, finally being afforded
enough stunned silence from his friend to turn around and store the crafting table away.
“Scott-“
Scott vanished the rest of his tools and began to walk again. “I’m leaving.” He responded coldly.
He wasn’t exactly mad at Joel for his line of questioning, he just genuinely didn’t want to keep
talking about this.
“Scott, wait-!”
Not again.
“What?” He yelled, shooting his head back to look at Joel. “You don’t really think anything you
could say now is gonna make me feel better, do you?”
Joel stopped walking. “I…”
Scott shook his head, fully ready to go right back to what he was doing.
“—I don’t get why you don’t talk to Jimmy anymore.”
Scott turned around completely this time. Was that the best he could do to get him to stick around
for longer? What was Joel even going on about?
“He’s my ex?” Scott responded somewhat confused. Joel sure was one to talk after having not
spoken to his own ex for months after Double Life.
“Well that doesn’t mean you should just avoid him forever!”
What? Again with this guy, honestly… He knew him and Jimmy were fairly close, but he’d never
tried to defend him like this in the past. Why was he only speaking like this now?
“Was that what those first three days of the game were? Me avoiding him?” Scott countered.
“I’m just saying-“
“I get it.” He said calmly, recalling everything that Cleo had asked of him during the first day of
this session. “We’re still on the same home server, it’d be foolish for me to avoid him forever, bla,
bla, bla—whatever it is you’re gonna tell me, I assure you, Cleo has already long since beaten you
to it. And she’s right. I should try to make peace with him, even if-“
Scott bit his lip. He tucked his arms into his chest in visible discomfort.
“—Even if it hurts… And I don’t know exactly how I’m going to do it while still feeling…”
God, he didn’t even want to think about this right now. He’d already had the terrifying thought of
what he was going to do after Trust Life ended in his head since at least last night.
Joel’s breathing hitched. “That’s not what I- Scott…” He looked devastated at what he was hearing.
“How can you know for sure that Jimmy doesn’t still feel the same way?”
Okay, now he was really overstepping. Jimmy hadn’t shown any signs of wanting to get back
together with him. He clearly loved Tango, and for good reason too. Besides, even if one were to
consider those few intimate instances shared between them during the start of this game as
romantic gestures, how the heck would Joel be aware of any of that? The man’s theory was wishful
thinking, at best, and Scott was all too aware of what happens whenever he lets himself get his
hopes up over something like this.
“Joel, don’t be ridiculous.” He said sternly. Though Joel didn’t seem to back down for even a
second.
“I’m just saying…” He went on. Oddly enough, his voice had now taken on a much more frantic
and insistent tone than it had before. “—You both were so close back then. All that couldn’t have
actually faded away in only a few months, right?”
“Joel…”
“—And come on, clearly you were good enough at hiding your feelings for this long. What’s to say
Jimmy couldn’t have been doing the same?”
“Except I never actually did hide my feelings, did I?” Scott said, putting his foot down. “Fucks
sake Joel, half the server knows by now.”
Joel grit his teeth. “So what then? You’re just going to give up on him-?”
Scott had had enough of this. He raised his voice and threw his arms forward in one final attempt to
get the other to finally drop such a stupidly hopeful idea.
“If it means they get to keep being happy, then yes! Maybe I will give up!!”
For once, Joel didn’t say anything back right away, but when he did, it came out in the form of one
single word that made Scott regret having ever spawned in next to him in the first place.
“…’ They? ’”
No. Nope. He was not unpacking all that right now in front of Joel of all people. No thank you.
“Leave me alone.” Scott started walking again, complete and utter avoidance of this conversation
being the primary thing on his mind once more.
“You’re too stubborn for your own good, you know!” He heard Joel shout back, still trying to re-
engage with him despite the mess of a conversation they’d created.
“Shut up.” Scott muttered. “You don’t know anything.”
“I know more than you think.” Joel’s voice was closer again.
“Oh really?”
“Yes!”
Scott spun his head around. “Like what then??”
And Joel, being ever so prepared to insist that he was always the one in the right when it came to
these sorts of things, likely shouted his next words without thinking at all.
“—Like how you and Jimmy both think that suffering for the sake of the other is the only real
answer to all this!!”
As soon as he’d said it, Scott saw Joel’s previously stern expression contort into one of absolute
dread. He swallowed, body going lax as his eyes scanned Scott’s face for any hint of realization.
Maybe Joel hoped he hadn’t read too much into that statement, that he was still somewhat drowsy
from lack of sleep, despite his previously clouded, dark eyes having now practically gone back to
normal. And well, that made two of them. Scott wished he hadn’t been paying attention enough
either when Joel had said that. It probably could have saved him so much pain if that were the
case.
But it wasn’t.
“Joel…” Scott spoke softly, taking a step forward. “Joel, what the hell is that suppose to mean…?”
One look at the other and Scott knew right away that he’d completely regretted what he’d said.
What did he mean by “suffer?” Was he implying that Jimmy was going through the exact same
situation that he was? Did Joel know something he didn’t??
“I shouldn’t have said that…” Joel whispered. He took a step backwards.
“Like hell you shouldn’t have.” Scott was having none of it.
“Scott-“
Scott quickly made his way over to Joel, despite the other’s frantic backwards walking. “Say more
right now.”
He got right up in Joel’s face, but still, the other remained silent, lips shaped in a flat line and eyes
shifting all over him as if he were looking for a physical way out of this problem.
“Joel!!”
“I- I cant…” Joel’s voice shook and at those words, Scott’s demeanor shifted into something much
more forceful. Wordlessly, he summoned a stone sword. It was the best thing he had on him and it
was still weak in comparison to the weapons he had before, but when used to threaten a man with
nothing, it might as well have been a loaded cannon.
Scott raised it to Joel’s neck, who raised his chin in response, holding his hands up defensively.
“Hey hang on a second-!!”
Scott pressed the weapon’s tip into the other’s skin, causing him to stumble backwards and fall
down. Joel instinctively placed a hand over his neck where the wound had been made.
“Scott-!”
Scott wasted no time hovering over him again, his friend now at a much easier angle for stabbing.
“Either you start talking, or one of your teammates dies.”
“Damn it Scott, really??” Joel looked at him in disbelief. “You’d kill Pearl over something like
this?”
For a second, Scott reconsidered what he was doing. Joel knew how close him and Pearl were and
they both knew that he wouldn’t actually be harming Joel by doing this, but potentially Pearl or
Lizzie instead. Pearl and Lizzie who had done nothing but act as loyal friends and allies to him this
entire game. He was red now, so it wouldn’t have been against the rules, but that didn’t mean that
doing so wouldn’t still leave a bad taste in his mouth. He’d feel guilty over this for sure.
But that was something for him to worry about later. Right now, Scott needed answers and this
seemed to be his only chance of getting them.
“Or it’ll kill Lizzie.” Scott finished Joel’s line of thought, though he doubted he needed any
reminding of the consequences on that end. “How about we find out?”
Joel’s eyes widened. “Dude, wait—hang on-!”
Scott tried to think as little about what he was actually doing as possible and proceeded to stab his
sword into Joel’s midsection repeatedly. Joel of course, still made an effort to get away, but at the
end of the day, they both knew he’d only ever be stalling for time. Soon enough, it was over just as
quickly as it had started. With one final stab, the two players felt their comms buzz in synch, Scott
not caring to check who had died and Joel being in no position to.
“One to go.” Scott threatened, almost disturbing himself with how upfront he was being about
killing his friends. It needed no saying that if Lizzie hadn’t died just then, then she certainly would
now if Joel didn’t start talking.
Joel didn’t try to scramble away again. Instead, he just looked Scott in the eyes, wondering if
whatever secret he had was really worth hiding. All things considered, Scott’s threats were a little
ridiculous. It was still only a game. Having Joel’s teammates die like this would probably be
frustrating, but not genuinely upsetting. At least, not in the long run. In reality, Scott hardly had any
real leverage over Joel at all. But even so, he’d still hold what little he had against him in the hopes
it might get him some answers.
“Please…” Scott’s shoulders slumped, eyes pleading with Joel. He wasn’t quite sure what he meant
by “please.” ‘Please don’t make me kill another one of my friends over this?’ ‘Please just tell me
what’s going on with Jimmy so I don’t have to drive myself even more insane worrying about
him?’ It could have been both. It probably was. And as Joel’s breathing stilled and his brows knit
into a look of genuine concern, he seemed to somehow fully acknowledge just what it was Scott
was begging him for, and whether it was the sympathy that did it or the threats, Joel finally
admitted defeat and opened his mouth to talk.
“Jimmy and I had a conversation.” Joel looked to the ground shamefully. “The very first day of the
game I came to him and confessed to him in private that I still felt something for Etho.”
Scott lowered his weapon slightly, terrified of just where Joel might be going with this.
“I asked him how I could get over that, y’know? I asked him how he was able to get over you, and
if there was just some trick to it I was missing, or- or…”
Joel looked up at Scott again. His eyes seemed to hint that he was having second thoughts, or at the
very least, simply thinking over one final time if this was really something he was going to do.
In the end, he continued.
“He never outright said it, okay? He never…”
Scott felt his heart begin to race. Every word that came out of the other’s mouth was only helping
to piece together more and more of an ugly, horrible puzzle in Scott’s head. One that seemed
impossible to solve, or even exist—until now.
“—But he never answered me either. And the look he gave me… I knew—I just knew right then
that-“
Scott’s breathing stopped.
“—That we’d been in the same boat this entire time…”
For Scott, everything went still.
This… this felt a little too much like how arriving back from Double Life had felt. A million
thoughts had been shoved into his head all at once, and yet, it all felt seamless, as if the problem
now wasn’t absorbing the information, but living with it.
The first thing Scott felt was denial.
“You’re lying.” He whispered, weapon fully lowered to his side as his body now seemed to
struggle with the simple effort of holding him upright.
Joel frowned. He gave Scott a sympathetic look, as if he had been expecting this sort of reaction.
“Scott, you’re not using your head.” He spoke calmly. “You asked for me to elaborate and I did.
Would I ever lie to you about something like this?”
Would Joel lie to him about something so personal and important? The obvious answer to Scott
should have been ‘no’, but then, at least the thought of Joel being so cruel as to play with his
emotions like this was an easier pill to swallow then—
Oh god…
“Jimmy…” Scott breathed. What felt like every negative emotion that existed seemed to hit him all
at once. “He- he still-?”
He still loved him.

Or at least, thats how it seemed. Had Scott been in Joel’s shoes, he would have probably concluded
the same thing. What’s worse was that he knew Jimmy well enough to be aware of what he
sounded like, looked like, and generally acted like when he didn’t want to talk about something,
and Joel’s apparent description of how he handled being confronted like that, how he refused to
respond altogether rather than try to lie or change the subject… it sounded far too uncanny for his
liking.
But Scott was still in denial. Maybe Joel had just gotten really good at lying over the past six
months… for whatever reason? Or maybe the question he’d asked Jimmy just made him
uncomfortable for a different reason. It wasn’t unreasonable for someone to not want to talk about
their ex in any context, after all. Or maybe Jimmy did still feel something for him, but it wasn’t
love. Maybe in that instance he just didn’t feel as though he could honestly say for certain that he
was entirely over him because he still wanted to just be friends? One of those things had to be
possible, right? One of those other answers had to be the truth, because if it wasn’t…
—If it wasn’t, then that meant that Jimmy had been pining in the exact same way that Scott had. It
meant that he’d never truly managed to be completely happy, that he’d never been at peace or at
ease over his decisions despite still having Tango in his life as his partner. But worst of all, it
meant that every sudden pang of desire that Scott had felt over the past six months, every ache of
longing he’d experience from the morning he woke up to the time he went to bed, every tough
night he’d spend trying to cry himself into a sleep that seemed it would never come over a love he
thought would never return—all that pain he went through could have all too easily been a
reflection of the pain that Jimmy had been feeling over losing him.
Regrets flooded Scott’s head, an overwhelming number of them. Why couldn’t he have just
believed Jimmy the first time when he said he loved both him and Tango? Why did he have to be
so stubborn and insistent and closed-minded? Why did he have to treat the love of his life like some
child who was confused and didn’t actually know what he wanted? Why did he have to go and fuck
everything up like this??
The ground seemed a lot closer than it had before. Had he fallen to his knees during all this? That
seemed to be the case, though Scott didn’t care all that much about it. Neither did Joel, as he was
now apparently busy scrolling through the messages in his comm. There must have been a lot of
them; both their devices had been buzzing quite frequently since this morning.
“Oh thank god…” Joel sighed once he seemed to have finally found whatever message he was
looking for.
Not knowing what else to do, Scott looked at his own once more, if only to see who he had ended
up killing.
Smallishbeans was slain by Smajor1995
PearlescentMoon died
Apparently it had been Pearl. No wonder Joel was relieved. Scott wanted to feel sorry over what he
had done. He probably would have if he had any emotions left to spare.
Joel’s smile went crooked. He tucked his head into his hands. “Well,” He said, chuckling bleakly
to himself. “Aren’t I just a bloody hypocrite?”
It took Scott a second to realize what Joel was talking about. He got the feeling the man didn’t
really care whether he figured it out or not, but eventually, he did. Joel had just done the exact same
thing he’d gotten upset at Etho over. He’d just exposed Jimmy’s deep, personal feelings to the
worst possible individual without his permission. He might have been under a lot of pressure to do
it, but still, it had been done, and he clearly didn’t feel good about it.
Scott could have laughed along with Joel in that regard, because that made two of them. Wasn’t it
Tango who made him realize just how wrong it was to try and pry the truth out of people? If
anyone was the hypocrite here, it was him.
Speaking of Tango, Scott noticed another message that had been sent earlier by him that he’d likely
been too distracted to have noticed.
<Tango> Scott I have your things and I’m on my way to spawn. Everything okay?
Scott glared at the message as if it had slapped him in the face. A new thought suddenly came to
him, one that made him question every single interaction he’d had with Tango from the moment
he’d kept him from jumping down that ravine till now.
“He already hates me.”
“He doesn’t.”
“Like you would know that…”
“I do.”
Scott stifled a shudder.
“Just—in case you still thought he hated you. That’s- that’s at least something, right?”
Did Tango… know about this?
It was a crazy thing to consider, but then again, everything that had happened to him during this
game was already crazy enough on its own.
Scott had to ask Tango about this. Even if it was pure paranoia, he had to, for his own sanity. He
needed to know for sure from an actual reliable source whether or not Jimmy still had feelings for
him. He trusted Tango not to lie about what he knew, but even if he did, perhaps his reaction to
being asked would be enough to give away what his true answer is.
So it was settled. He’d ask Tango about this once he saw him again. And if Scott were lucky
enough to have stopped acting like a selfish idiot by then, he might just be able to restrain himself
from demanding answers in the same way he’d done so of Joel just now.
Scott looked at the message Tango had sent once again and for some reason, the irony of that last
question seemed to finally do it for him. Scott was laughing now, an odd, sad kind of laugh just
like Joel’s. He put his head in his hands as well, the laughter slowly turning into sobs, then frantic
breaths, then muffled screaming…
Chapter End Notes
Scott - Red
Jimmy - X
Tango - Red
Cleo - Yellow
Bdubs - Yellow
Etho - Red
Grian - Yellow
Scar - X
Bigb - Red
Ren - X
Martyn - X
Impulse - Yellow
Pearl - X
Joel - Red
Lizzie - Red
2/3rds
Chapter Summary
Scott asks Tango about Jimmy and realizes he’s afraid of change. Tango’s gone a bit
too long as a red life without killing anyone.
Chapter Notes
“Well that was quite the bonding experience.” Joel said sarcastically. Both he and Scott were back
to laying on the ground again, backs flat against the soft grass as their eyes stared up at the sky
above. If anyone were to walk up to them, they’d probably assume that they were cloud gazing and
not that they’d just underwent a confrontation so emotionally exhausting that it literally managed to
drain them physically.
“I hate you.” Scott replied, voice even and emotionless. Of course he didn’t actually hate Joel, he
just hated that it had to be him who he ended up getting such earth-shattering information from: the
knowledge that Jimmy probably still had romantic feelings for him even after all this time. The
snarky attitude he was displaying now certainly didn’t help either.
“No you don’t.” Joel said back in an equally emotionless tone as if having read Scott’s mind.
Clearly, Joel already read between the lines in his words, so there was no point in confirming that
he did not in fact, “hate” him.
Instead, Scott’s mind shifted to Jimmy once more. If refraining from thinking about him had been a
gruelingly difficult challenge throughout the entirety of this game then by god was it going to be an
impossible one now. He couldn’t just let this knowledge sit in the back of his mind. Not even until
Tango arrived in what would probably only be a short while longer.
Scott lazily turned his head to the side, Joel’s tired eyes now being just within his the range of
vision. “When you’d hang out with Jimmy, or talk to him, did you—did he ever seem…?” Scott
struggled to find the right words. How exactly was one suppose to go about asking if their ex acted
as though they missed them?
Once again however, Joel was already three steps ahead of his line of questioning. “Not really.” He
replied, still staring up at the sky. “He seemed more quiet and exhausted than he did outright
depressed or anything like that, if I’m being honest.”
Well wasn’t that was just great? “Quiet” and “exhausted?” Like how he was acting right now after
having yet another breakdown? Yeah, that’s really reassuring actually. How nice that Jimmy was
just as good at concealing his emotions like that to the point where it exhausted him. At least he
wasn’t outright depressed, since that’s apparently the bar that’s been set for this evaluation.
“Did he ever talk about me?”
Joel hesitated as if thinking the next question over carefully, which was something Scott could
appreciate at least.
“Not that I can remember.”
Not knowing what else to ask, Scott went back to staring up at the sky, his thoughts now back on
Joel and Pearl.
“I’m sorry I stabbed you.” He said sincerely.
“It’s no big deal.”
Scott frowned. Maybe Joel didn’t resent him for it, but that didn’t stop him from resenting himself.
The fact that he’d ended up knocking Pearl out of the game was what got to him the most. Pearl,
who had helped greatly in killing Grian. Pearl, who had felt so upset over indirectly getting Jimmy
killed even though it wasn’t her fault. Pearl, who was one of the reasons as to why he’d even
considered rejoining the Life games in the first place… What he’d just done to her felt cruel. What
was worse was the thought of how confused she must be over such a betrayal. Scott had still felt
guilty over the fact that she hadn’t gotten any kind of celebration after her victory in the last game,
and now he’d gone and made sure that she no longer had a shot at getting one after this game
either. How horrible of a friend could he be?
“At least you quelled whatever thirst for violence you might have had as a red life pretty early,
right?” Joel added on, providing Scott with absolutely zero reassurance whatsoever.
“You never told me how things were going for you and Lizzie.” Scott said, trying to change the
subject.
“What? Since yesterday?”

Scott turned his head again to see that Joel was actually facing him as he talked this time. It was
brief, but for a moment, Scott could see the faintest hint of a smile forming at the corner’s of his
friend’s lips before he went to cover it with his hand.
“They’re better, actually.” Scott could still hear the smile through the man’s voice. “They’re
really, really better…”
There couldn’t have been a lot of things Joel could have said in that moment that would have
genuinely brightened Scott’s mood, but that—the way Joel actually seemed relieved and happy
over how things had been going with Lizzie since yesterday—that knowledge that his friend was
doing better after so long made the bleakness in Scott’s heart let up just a little.
“SCOOOOTT—!”
—And just as quickly, that bleakness was replaced by fear.
They both sat up straight upon hearing the noise. Scott already knew just by the voice that it was
Lizzie who was fast approaching them. “Uh oh.” He uttered, scrambling to stand back up.
Lizzie reached where Scott was, staring him directly in the eyes, her complexion understandably
upset and her own bright red eyes doing nothing to lessen his fear. “Why would you stab Joel like
that? You’ve killed Pearl!”
Joel had stood up as well by now. Scott heard him let out a small laugh. “Don’t worry.” He said to
Lizzie. “Whatever reason it is you think he had, I assure you, the actual one is a hundred times
crazier.”
How nice of Joel to have his back like that. Scott shot the other a nasty expression; Joel simply
smirked.
Scott turned back to Lizzie, racking his brain for any excuse he could think up that didn’t involve
telling her the actual truth of what happened. Did he think his friend would be somewhat
understanding if he explained to her that he’d attacked Joel over a desperate attempt to figure out
what exactly he’d meant when he implied that Jimmy had been “suffering?” Probably. Did that
mean he still wanted her to know about all that? Hell no. If not for his sake, then at least for
Jimmy’s, considering the fact that his ex probably didn’t want any more of their friends knowing
that he still had feelings for him in the first place.
Scott opened his mouth, still not entirely sure what he was going to say.
—Only to have his attention captured by something else completely.
Just as Lizzie had arrived here after her encounter with the wither, so too had Tango, who Scott
could clearly see over Lizzie’s shoulder.
Lizzie seemed to realize he was staring at something behind her and turned around. Only then did
Scott get a better look at the other. For some reason, Tango was accompanied by two other players.
Bdubs, but much more notably, Impulse. Which, as infuriating and confusing as it was to see him
there, Scott’s attention was still largely taken up by Tango’s arrival. More specifically, what he’d
been planning on asking him about once he’d gotten here.
The moment they locked eyes from a distance, the two just stared at each other.
Then, without warning, they both began talking.
“I can explain-“ Scott said at the very same time Tango did.
Tango cut himself off, looking at Scott in confusion. Wait, what are you explaining?”
Scott raised an eyebrow. “Uh, I killed Pearl?” He answered, wondering why that fact hadn’t been
obvious to the other.
The blaze’s eyes went wide. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his comm. “Wait- you
killed-?”
Scott bit his lip awkwardly as he watched Tango make a scrolling motion with his thumb.
“Oh my god.” He finally said, having likely just found the death message he had apparently missed
for whatever reason. “Scott—why??”
“That’s what I was just asking him!” Lizzie added, looking back at him.
Scott felt a lump forming in his throat. There were too many people here. He hadn’t expected this
at all.
“How about we just let him explain it to all of us then?” Bdubs interjected. Scott felt his heart sink
into his stomach.
Joel, of course, was already aware of just why Scott would definitely not want to explain his reason
for attacking Joel right here in front of everyone and as a way of finally showing him some mercy,
tried to speak up. “Uh, guys-“
“I agree.” Lizzie started talking again before Joel could even get a sentence in. She looked at Scott,
arms crossed with a curious eyebrow raised. “Tell us, Scott. Just what on earth made you want to
stab Joel?”
“And don’t tell us it was the red life urges; you literally stabbed Impulse just yesterday!” Bdubs
said, clearly very aware now and probably still a bit bitter over the fact that he’d attacked Impulse
last night while on yellow. Scott saw Impulse put a hand to his shoulder as if to try and keep him
from yelling more. For what reason, he did not know.
Scott felt as though he were in one of those reoccurring dreams he’d sometimes have where he’d
spawn into MCC in his underwear. But at least those were dreams. Right now, every person
surrounding him was real, and they really were all staring at him, judging him, waiting for some
kind of explanation…
“I-“ Scott swallowed. Okay, maybe he did care a little about who knew he still loved Jimmy and
who didn’t. But even if that wasn’t the case, telling one person at a time in secret and announcing
it out loud to five different people all at once were two very different things. And that wasn’t even
taking into consideration the fact that he’d still be revealing Jimmy’s feelings in the process as
well, which was not okay.
Almost automatically, Scott’s eyes flew back over to Tango. The one person here who he felt like
he could tell pretty much anything to. The person he’d been so anxious to talk to about all this
anyway.
“Scott…?” Tango said, lifting a hand up.
The blaze hadn’t said much, but Scott still clung on to that word eagerly and without hesitation. “I
need to talk to you.” He said, tone changing drastically from nervous to stern as he made his way
over to Tango. He grabbed him gently by the arm and proceeded to pull him in the direction of a
nearby hill.
“Okay?” Tango said, confused.
Scott noticed Lizzie and Bdubs still staring at him as if he’d suddenly gone crazy, but they made
no moves to try and stop him.
“We’ll be back in a minute.” Scott yelled back, ignoring the handful of baffled “hang on’s-“ and
“what’s?” Being muttered behind him.
Scott felt Tango lean into him after a certain distance was reached. “Where are we going?” He
asked.
“Far away enough so that they can’t hear us.” Scott answered bluntly. By then they’d reached the
rocky hill Scott had been headed in the direction of. It wasn’t much, but it was a good distance
away from the rest of the group and was the best they could do given that they were in a planes
biome.
Once spawn was out of sight, Scott turned around. Tango, for some reason, only looked less
confused and more nervous than he had before.
“I know you’re probably mad that I brought Impulse here.” Tango said, opening his mouth before
Scott could.
“But we had a talk, and-“
Scott held up a hand and shook his head. “That’s not what I want to talk about right now.”
Tango blinked at him in confusion. “Then why are we…?”

Scott took in a deep breath. He hadn’t fully comprehended the predicament he’d put himself in
until just now, having gone from needing to have one awkward conversation to another. Once
again, he felt ill prepared for this despite having still wanted to do it. Unsure of what to say despite
having gone over it numerous times in his head. Was there even any polite, non-invasive way of
asking someone if their current boyfriend who was also your ex-boyfriend was still in love with
you? It was a ridiculous thing to even imply, after all. For all he knew, Tango could feel hurt over
it, or worse, he’d grow defensive. Scott wasn’t sure he could handle it if the other started hating
him again, despite how unlikely the logical part of his brain knew that would be.
“Scott?”
He’d been silent for too long. Tango was still waiting expectantly for him to say something.
Fuck it.
“Tango…” Scott all but bit down on his tongue as he savored the final few seconds of decision he
still had to just drop this subject completely. But of course, that wasn’t going to happen, not while
there still existed even the smallest chance that everything Joel had interpreted from Jimmy was
true.
Scott relaxed his shoulders, gazing up at Tango calmly, but sternly. “I am going to ask you a
question and I need you to answer honestly.”
Tango’s expression remained the same, confused.
“ Please .” Scott added. The blaze seemed to relax slightly at this.
“Of course.”
This was it. This question was probably going to disrupt their relationship in a multitude of ways,
none of them good, but it still needed to be asked. This was something that they still needed to talk
about even if it was uncomfortable.
“Jimmy…” Scott started, knowing well enough by now that simply saying Jimmy’s name was
enough to grab either of their attention, and in one final phrase, Scott completely dropped the bomb
he had.
“…Is he still in love with me?”
Tango hadn’t shown any reaction straight away. At first, it seemed to have taken him a second to
process the question, whether that be because it was one that was difficult to answer, or because the
blaze hadn’t been expecting him to have asked him something so blatant in a million years, Scott
wasn’t sure yet.
Then, once the question seemed to have fully registered, Tango’s previously puzzled expression
shifted into one of confusion, then concern, then absolute dread, his brows knitting, eyes going
wide and body going completely stiff. He noticed how Tango appeared to take a small step back
with little hesitation in such a manner that made Scott wonder if he even knew he was doing it. But
despite all that his body language had shown, Tango had kept his mouth sealed shut for every
instance that came after.
For every second of silence that passed, Scott’s fear only grew greater.
“Tango…?” His voice shook warily.
Tango said nothing. Another few seconds passed.
“Tango—are you not answering because you don’t know, or because you don’t want to lie to me?”
Still nothing. Not that anything he might say would even matter at this point. Tango’s silence had
already said more than enough on its own.
Scott already had his answer.
Before he could say anything else however, Tango finally started talking.
“I can’t…”
It wasn’t much, just a small mutter under his breath as the blaze turned his shaking head down in
shame.
“What?” Scott’s volume picked up.
“I can’t, I can’t…”
“What do you-?”
It finally clicked for him; Scott shut his mouth.
Assuming Tango had known about how Jimmy really felt, he’d put him in a situation where saying
anything in response to his question would be a wrong move that might harm someone. Whether
that be saying that he didn’t know and lying to him, or telling him the truth and betraying Jimmy,
or in this case, saying nothing and revealing everything anyway, Tango had already screwed up. At
least, in his own eyes he probably did.
“Forget it.” Scott said, trying to move on from the subject as quickly as possible despite how
impossible it probably was to just “forget” about the bombshell of a question he’d just dropped on
Tango. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
Tango had a hand covering his mouth now. He seemed incapable of even looking Scott in the eye,
let alone responding verbally.
Still, Scott desperately tried to end the conversation there. “Come on. Let’s go back to spawn.” He
took Tango’s free hand in his own—a gesture that felt perfectly natural at this point—and tried to
guide them both back in the direction they’d come from.
But Tango wasn’t moving.
“That’s not fair.” The blaze spoke quietly, finally managing to respond in some coherent way.
Scott looked back at him. He tried his best not to let the vast guilt he was currently feeling show on
his face.
“—You already know the answer now, regardless of what I say.”
Scott realized there was no getting out of this. He’d already sprung up the question out of nowhere
and the damage had been done on both ends.
So this entire time, Jimmy had really never stopped loving him, had he?
“How long did you know?” Scott found the words escaping his mouth before he could think
anything through, his curiosity—no, desperation—easily getting the better of him.
“Only five days. I swear.” Tango pulled his hand away, using the sleeve of his sweater to wipe at
the corner of his eye. “Though I feel stupid for not figuring it out sooner.”
Scott’s expression dropped. “So do I.” He agreed. “I never thought him the best liar.”
“He never needed to lie.” Tango added. “It’s much easier to conceal a secret if you just never talk
about it.”
Scott saw the other’s jaw clench, the dreaded realization of what he had revealed, however
unintentionally, was beginning to play out on his face again.
“Damn it…”
“You didn’t do anything wrong, Tango.” Scott took a step forward, putting a hand to the blaze’s
shoulder.
“But I did.” Tango insisted. Trying to figure out how Scott suddenly even got the idea to ask him
the question of whether or not Jimmy still loved him seemed irrelevant to him now. “I watched you
pine over him this entire time, convinced that he hated you and I never said anything.”
Scott shook his head. “You had a choice between breaking his trust and breaking mine and you
didn’t want to do either. I can’t get mad at you over something like that.”
“But you should.”
Why had he thought bringing this up now was a good idea? Why were they arguing over
something like this when there were so many other things they could be talking about. Like what
was meant to happen after this game ended, where their current relationship stood, because good
god, had they both crossed some kind of threshold the moment he’d put Tango’s flames out. They
both knew it. Hell, they’d even tried to address it this morning, and maybe they would have gotten
somewhere if that stupid wither hadn’t cut their interaction short.
Scott looked down at his own hand, then, back over to Tango’s, the one that he had just been
holding only a few seconds ago. Something he’d held this morning when looking over his burns.
The hand he’d held when talking him down, when spilling his feelings… The one Scott had pulled
him in with while standing at the edge of a ravine, threatening to end both their lives at a moment’s
notice. The hand Tango had held when he guided him in the dark—and the one he reached for that
pulled him out of the very lava pit it had shoved him into.
Scott quietly looked between both their hands again.
He wanted them back together.
“Does this even mean anything?” Scott whispered in defeat. “Does knowing how Jimmy feels even
change anything?”
He didn’t know what he’d expected Tango to have said to that. He wasn’t even sure the blaze fully
understood what he was asking. And yet, always full of surprises, Tango’s next question added to
his own perfectly.
“Do you want it to?”
Scott’s breath hitched. Did he want it to? What would even change? What were either of them even
talking about??
Tango’s words from that morning rang through his head.

Each of them being questions he didn’t know the answer to.
“What are we?”
Or maybe he was just scared to know?
“I don’t know…” Was what Scott ended up saying, and for now, it was the truth. All he did know
was that he wanted Tango’s hand back in his. He wanted Jimmy’s back too. He just wanted to keep
them both in his life for as long as he could, and even that still felt painfully impossible. Mere
wishful thinking…
“There hasn’t been a day that’s gone by that I hadn’t thought endlessly on how I can fix this.”
Tango said.
Scott grit his teeth. “I hate this…” He sighed, as he realized this information changed absolutely
nothing. “He could have gone with either of us after Double Life and the result would have been
the exact same.” Scott felt his throat closing up. “I hate this!”
He noticed Tango open his mouth, only to quickly shut it again.
“What?” Scott bit, his anger not meant for Tango, or even himself, but for the situation they’d been
placed in. “Don’t tell me you have any more of an idea than I do of what we’re suppose to do about
this?”
Tango crossed his arms uncomfortably and swallowed. “I guess you could say… I have two thirds
of an idea.”
What was that suppose to mean?
“—A crazy idea.”

Scott stared at the blaze blankly. He didn’t dare get his hopes up that Tango had any kind of real
solution to this at all. The blaze was incredibly smart, but that didn’t count for anything if the
puzzle he was working on didn’t even have a solution. Still, he let him speak.
“Scott…” Tango placed his arms at his sides. He took a confident step forward.
Strangely enough, his pupils began dilating again as he got closer. Though Scott didn’t think much
of it anymore.
“I… I’m-“
Suddenly, they both heard footsteps. Tango stopped talking and Scott turned his head to the side,
immediately displeased with who he locked eyes with.
“Lizzie sent me to check on you guys.” Impulse said awkwardly, apparently realizing he’d just
walked in on a very tense conversation. “She wanted to make sure you hadn’t run away, cause,
y’know, she’s still mad about—“
Scott didn’t let him finish. Instead, he interrupted the other with a long, dramatic groan. “Why
aren’t you dead already?” He asked, bluntly voicing his annoyance at the man. “Didn’t I do what
you wanted by finishing off your hearts last night? Why are you even here?”
More quickly than Scott liked, Tango came in to defend the other. “He kind of saved me from
phantom dying while I was running away from the wither.” The blaze said sheepishly. “Like,
twice…”
Scott’s eyes darted between them, his deadpanned expression hardly changing at all.
“We had a talk and I wanted to try giving him another chance.”
Scott felt pretty peeved by that statement, all things considered. And there really was a lot to
consider with this guy. He’d been fine before Double Life, but at this point, he was just
insufferable. He hadn’t a clue what he and Tango could have possibly said to each other that made
the blaze want to forgive him all of a sudden, but Scott had trouble configuring any string of words
that Impulse could say that would make him have the same sudden change of heart.
Still, Impulse tried his damndest.
“I know this probably means nothing to you, and that’s completely fair, but I did want to say that I
regret everything I said last night.”
Scott rolled his eyes. He was still very annoyed by the other, but at least he was actually owning up
to being a jerk for once.
“…And everything before then too—and I’m really sorry for being such a prick this whole game.
I’ve been going through some personal stuff, but that gave me no right to take it out on you and
Tango. And if there’s anything I can do to even begin to make things right between us, just say the
word.”
Yeah, there was no way Scott was going to forgive him that quickly. It was going to take a little
more than a wordy apology to get him back as a friend. That being said however, Scott did have
one particular word in mind for Impulse that might help his case a little in the meantime.
” Leave.” Scott said coldly. He saw Impulse look to Tango as if silently asking the blaze if that
was what he wanted as well.
“We’ll be back in a minute.” Tango reassured him. And with one last awkward glance, he left.
Finally.
“So what were you going to say?” Scott asked once he was sure Impulse was out of earshot.
Tango now looked more uncomfortable than before, which unnerved Scott greatly. He hadn’t a
clue what The other was trying to tell him, but if it were this upsetting, then perhaps they could go
over it at a time when they didn’t have so many people waiting on them?
“Scott—I-“
His pupils had gone back to expanding, something that Scott had grown used to by now at least to a
point where it no longer surprised him. Though he still wondered why it’d been happening with
Tango more often lately.
Then, something shifted in them. The blaze’s red pupils shrunk again and all of sudden, he let out
what sounded like a mix between a groan and a deep growl.
“I… I really need to kill someone.” Tango locked his jaw and looked away. “Like, soon.”
Scott took a step back, surprised, but not afraid. “Shoot. It’s been over a day, hasn’t it?”
Tango nodded. Scott cursed in his head. He’d completely forgotten about that. It’d been over 24
hours since Tango had been knocked down to red and in that time he’d killed zero people. He did
know Tango to have had the stronger will in comparison to Jimmy when it came to being a red life,
so hopefully that would afford them a bit more time than usual.
“How much longer do you think you can handle it for?” Scott asked.
“Like, four hours, maybe?” Tango responded. “But I wanna wait a while before acting on
anything, see if maybe we run into Grian or Bigb sometime soon.”
“Okay.” Scott nodded. “Lets try to move quickly then, alright?”
“Yeah…”
Great. Good. That was something they could both agree on. Scott moved to grab Tango’s hand
again, intending to take them both back towards spawn.
“Wait.”
He halted his movement once he saw Tango lean back.
“Sorry, just-“ The blaze took a pause before summoning a variety of items in his hands at the flash
of a bright light. Scott only became more confused once he tried to hand the items over to him.
“Here.”
He realized he was just giving him back some of the stuff he’d dropped at their base, but he still
took the items reluctantly, something about the way Tango was speaking to him making him
unnerved. “Tango?”
Tango took a deep breath in. “I was gonna head out on my own from here.”
Scott nearly dropped everything he was holding. “The—hell? No-!”
Tango seemed to have expected this kind of response from him, because he was already halfway
into a counter argument. “All I do is hurt you-“
“Again with this sacrificial bullshit-!” Scott spat.
“Scott-“
“Now you’re the one who’s not being fair!”
Tango stopped talking. Scott wasn’t going to have this. He thought they’d reached an
understanding. Maybe he really did regret not jumping off that cliff in the beginning, but that didn’t
change the fact that he still wanted the other here with him now. Didn’t Tango understand? Hadn’t
he realized by now that it didn’t matter what he did at this point? That despite everything he’d put
him through (most of those being things he hadn’t intended to do anyway) he was still in this for
the long run. He wasn’t about to let Tango leave him just like that!
“If you really want me to beg you not to leave for a third time, then I can beg.” Scott said,
vanishing the items and putting his foot down. Admittedly, the sentence seemed to surprise him in
addition to Tango. What was suppose to have been a bluff came out sounding more sincere than
he’d meant it to.
“What?? No-!” Tango started, but whatever words he’d meant to say quickly died in his throat.
Scott saw the blaze look him up and down, realizing that he really wasn’t going to budge on this.
Not after all that had passed between them this morning—and everything else that came before
that.
“Fine.” Tango breathed, slumping his shoulders. “I’ll stay—for now.”

Scott quietly sighed in relief. “We can talk about all this later.” He added. “I promise. Let’s just…
go and see what everyone else wants right now, okay?”
He held his hand out one again, and this time, Tango finally reached out and took it.
“Okay.”
Chapter End Notes
If Scott seems like he’s being extra clueless about his emotions at this stage, I promise
there’s a reason for it, lol.
Downhill
Chapter Summary
Impulse and Bdubs try to distract the withers while the rest of the group gears up.
Everything goes south, and Grian finally makes his presence known again.
Chapter Notes
Minor note here, I hadn’t realized that Cleo uses she/they pronouns, but I’ll make sure
to incorporate those when referencing them from this point on. Sorry about that.
Scott hadn’t let go of his hand once they started walking. Not even as they arrived back at spawn to
their group of surpristinely less startled-looking companions. The first thing Tango noticed upon
arriving, was that Joel had been whispering something into Lizzie’s ear. The second, was that
Bdubs and Impulse had been doing a similar thing, although they were instead speaking to each
other from farther away, the word’s they’d presumably been throwing back and fourth having
halted the moment they’d noticed that he and Scott had returned.
Tango was confused by this display for a number of reasons. Lizzie and Bdubs for example, hadn’t
appeared as eager to question Scott as they had been moments before. In fact, all they really did
was stare at him in relative silence. Tango wasn’t entirely sure what the group had been talking
about during the time between Impulse’s departure to now, but apparently whatever Joel had
whispered to Lizzie and Impulse to Bdubs had somehow convinced them to drop the subject of
Pearl’s death altogether. It was suspicious, as Scott seemed to think as well given his confused
expression, but ultimately, Tango hadn’t thought to question it. At least not right now.
Impulse and Bdubs started making their way back to the center of the group. Tango locked gazes
with Impulse quickly. He followed the other’s eyes, which appeared to dart downward to look at
his and Scott’s still-interlocked hands, then back up again at him. The other shot him a cheeky grin
and made an aggressive wiggling motion with his eyebrows. Tango rolled his eyes at him and tried
his best not to blush. This man was quickly starting to make him regret ever letting him in on how
he felt about Scott, though at least it was for more annoying reasons rather than anything actually
harmful.
Scott hadn’t seemed to notice their subtle, but still possibly noticeable silent interaction (thank
god), as he was more focused on Lizzie instead.
“Welcome back.” Lizzie started.
Tango saw Scott raise an eyebrow. “Um, hi…?”
For a moment, nobody spoke.
“Are- are you not still gonna ask what happened with Joel-?”
“We can talk about that later.” Lizzie waved her hand lazily, cutting Scott off. By then, Bdubs had
made his way over to them.
“Hey Bdubs.” Tango voiced awkwardly.
“ You. ” The man stared at Scott, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. For a second, Tango thought he
was going to finally follow up on his questions about Impulse’s phantom death last night. But
instead, he ended up saying something else entirely.
“You terrify me, man.” Bdubs continued, pointing a stern finger at Scott’s face.
He and Scott looked at each other, equally confused.
“I’m glad you’re finally getting some sleep. Really.”
Impulse let out a small laugh from behind him. Bdubs didn’t break his intent stare at all.
Ah. So that’s what this was about.
“He has been getting more sleep lately. Don’t worry Dubs.” Tango held a hand up in reassurance.
Scott, likely not knowing how else to reply to the other, nodded slowly.
“Good.” Bdubs said. He lowered his hand and took a step back, seeming satisfied enough with that
answer. “You guys keep taking care of each other, alright?”
The last sentence had caught the both of them off guard, but neither of them said anything in
response to it. Eventually, Joel spoke up to change the subject.
“So, thoughts on the withers?”
“We gotta kill them, obviously.” Impulse said, crossing his arms. “Since we’re all here, how about
we just take them down as a group one at a time?”
“That does make the most sense, I guess.” Joel said back.
Tango watched Scott take out his comm with his other hand. Rather than let go of his however,
Scott seemed to opt for typing words out one-handed instead, which Tango had zero complaints
about. “I’m going to message Cleo and Etho, actually. Gonna make sure they know about the
withers in case they haven’t woken up yet.”
“How about you ask Cleo if they can join us? The more the merrier.” Bdubs said.
“A near full server alliance sounds nice.” Tango agreed. “Feels kinda mean that we’re not inviting
Bigb or Etho though. Any particular reason for that?”
“Well, we still don’t know for sure where Bigb stands with Grian.” Joel chimed in. “And as for
both of them, they’ve each been reds for a while and neither have killed anyone since at least
yesterday, so they might just be a general danger to everyone.”
“Didn’t you also turn red at around the same time that Etho did?” Lizzie narrowed her eyes at
Tango.
“I could say the same for you.” Tango smirked. “Feeling like killing anyone in particular, Lizzie?”
Lizzie huffed out a small laugh. “There’s a bit of a red haze clouding my mind, but I can still see
and think quite coherently, thank you very much.”
“Well, so can I.” Tango half-lied. He could think clearly for now, couldn’t he? Besides, Lizzie
couldn’t be too far behind from snapping either. It was only a matter of time for both of them.
“However, if you still want to kill me, Joel’s literally right there.” Lizzie gestured to her husband,
catching both him and Joel off guard.
“Lizzie?” Joel chuckled awkwardly.
“—And he’s still completely unarmed-“
“LIZZIE—??”
Lizzie laughed, waving her hand once more. “I’m joking, I’m joking…” She held her hand up to
the side of her face in a poor attempt to hide the movement of her mouth from Joel as she
proceeded to mouth the words ‘I’m not.’ In Tango’s direction.
Tango had to have guessed she’d spoken to Joel about their little deal by now at some point.
Whether everyone else knew about the details of it, he didn’t know for sure, but anyone in the
group who didn’t seemed to have simply taken Lizzie’s comment as the joke that it came off as
and nothing more.
“Thanks for the offer…” Tango replied, humoring her. “But I can keep myself under control. At
least for a while longer.”
He heard Joel sigh in relief as Lizzie shrugged her shoulders. “If you say so…”
Everyone was quick to direct their attention back towards the main subject at hand after that.
“I think our first priority more than anything should be getting more supplies. Food especially.”
Scott mentioned.
“He has a point.” Joel said, looking to Lizzie. “A lot of our crops did get destroyed, remember?
And that was only the destruction that I’d managed to catch before I died.” He gave the other a
solemn look. “How bad is it, Lizzie?”
Lizzie shook her head sadly. “Our base is pretty wrecked.”
Tango sighed. “So’s ours.”
“There might still be a decent amount of wheat left though.” Lizzie continued. “And I didn’t see all
of our chests get blown up, so…”
A few looks were thrown between everyone, no one quite sure what they wanted their next move
to be, until Impulse spoke up again.
“Alright then. How about this...” He said, clapping his hands. “Me and Bdubs can try to lure both
withers away from each of your bases so that you all can go back there and grab any remaining
food and supplies you had before dying. How’s that sound?”
Tango looked at Bdubs. He didn’t seem to give any objections and neither did anyone else. Scott
however, shook his head. “That’d sound great if there was actually anything left for us to go back
to.” He said, gesturing between them.
He had a point. There had been close to nothing left by the time they’d woken up. Nothing on the
surface, at least.
Tango suddenly remembered something.
“Actually, there might still be something there.” He said, looking at Scott. “Remember that large
secret chest I hid under the floor that I stored a bunch of our valuables in?”
Scott, who had been somewhat pessimistic and tired up until now, suddenly lit up with excitement
as soon as the same recollection hit him as well. “How are you like—a literal genius??” He said to
Tango, baffled.
Once again, Tango tried to keep from blushing, but he hadn’t been very confident in his ability to
hide it. Especially not when Scott was looking at him like that —his eyes bright and grin wide, all
because of something he’d done, something he’d said. Tango loved that feeling, the feeling of
knowing that his actions had brought happiness to the person he loved.
The blaze’s eyes trailed back down to the other’s mouth.
…He wanted to kiss Scott until neither of them could breathe.
Tango looked away again, almost ashamed by the idea. Never before had his thoughts about Scott
been so blatantly romantic, but he guessed that was going to be something he’d have to get used to
from now on, as off-putting as they may be.
All eyes were on Impulse now, and from there, the conversation was all about planning and
strategy.
The plan was somewhat complex, but doable. Bdubs and Impulse had volunteered themselves to
act as bait for both withers since they were still yellow and hadn’t lost any of their belongings like
the rest of them had. Assuming both wither’s were around the same locations they’d last seen them
at, it was hoped that tracking them down again shouldn’t be too difficult given how noticeable their
mere presence was. The two withers would then be led along opposite ends of the world border so
as to minimalize damage to anyone else’s base. So long as Impulse and Bdubs kept at a steady
running pace at a safe distance while being followed, it was unlikely that they’d manage to be
caught or blown up.
While all this was happening, Tango, Scott, Joel, and Lizzie would head back to their ends of the
map and gather as much stuff back as they could get. Lizzie and Joel had agreed to make a stop at
their mob farm to pick up enough arrows and gunpowder for the six of them, while he and Scott
agreed to spare whatever ores they could once they got back.
After all that was settled, the group would announce it through their communicators and everyone
would head back to spawn. Once they were all together again and properly geared up, they’d head
out to fight the withers one at a time as a group like they’d planned. Overall, it felt like a decent
strategy.
It was suppose to be one, anyway…
“You guys sure you wanna do this?” Tango asked, checking in on Impulse and Bdubs one last
time.
“It’ll be fine.” Impulse replied.
“We’re yellows. We got lives to spare.” Bdubs added.
Joel kicked a rock, groaning. “I bet Grian’s still chilling in the nether right now having a good
laugh at our expense.”
Tango noticed Scott’s head perk up at the mention of the avian. “Remember to keep an eye out for
him as well just in case he isn’t.”
“Will do.” Bdubs said.
With a few more ‘good luck’s’ thrown about, Impulse and Bdubs began running off in separate
directions.
A few minutes had passed when Tango started to mildly worry about whether or not either of his
friends were able to find their respective withers, but soon enough, he saw his comm light up with a
message from Impulse, just as he had initially expected.
<ImpulseSV> Got the one we saw by the ravine to follow me towards the world border
<ImpulseSV> Should be safe to head there now
They were still waiting on Bdubs to confirm anything on his end, but Joel and Lizzie seemed
content on waiting a little longer as he and Scott decided to make their way back to what remained
of their base. Eventually, they did get confirmation on their comms that Bdub’s had successfully
lured his wither away from Joel and Lizzie’s base and just like that, everything was in motion.
Tango had been somewhat worried for Etho and Cleo however; he could tell that Scott was too.
Neither of them had yet to react in any way to the warning he’d sent out. The only thing they could
hope for in this case was that they were either not up yet or were preoccupied with something else.
If they were lucky however, then it wouldn’t matter if they ended up seeing the messages or not.
So long as there weren’t any hiccups in this plan and it all went smoothly, they should have both
the withers killed in maybe an hour or so.
They wanted to be in and out of their base as quickly as possible for everyone’s sake. As such,
Scott decided to finally let go of Tango’s hand since it seemed like he would need both his arms
free in order to run faster. That didn’t make the run over to their base any less awkward, of course.
“I think Scott loves both of you.”
Impulse’s words rang out in Tango’s head as he ran. He still thought them too good to be true, but
on the off chance that they were…
Tango tried not to focus too much on Scott right now. He had wanted to tell him everything, even if
it would have been awkward and embarrassing at best, and at worst, would have completely
shattered any already existing positive feelings that Scott may have had for him. But he couldn’t
right now. Maybe he was just making more excuses for himself, but at this moment his brain could
hardly distinguish the idea of wanting to be close to Scott because he loved him and wanting to be
close to Scott so that he could eventually kill him. Now was not a good time for this. He’d
overcome his urge to murder people later and maybe then he could finally talk to Scott about this,
but not right now.
It wasn’t too long before they reached the clearing in the forest, one now made larger by the
handful of trees that had burnt down around it. Tango hadn’t gotten as good a look at everything as
he could have this morning, but when he saw the remains of the base once more, it was Scott who
ended up voicing his thoughts aloud perfectly.
“Shit…” Scott spoke, his voice low.
Tango began to walk ahead of the other, trying to distinguish one pile of rubble from another and
figure out just where he’d hidden that secret chest while simultaneously trying not to fall into
despair or rage over the sight of the mess that became of their base. He knew that he should
probably inform Scott of who exactly it was that burned down their place and why, though he
figured that now wasn’t the best time for that either. The last thing either of them needed right now
was for him to feel even worse off than he already did. And besides, it wasn’t as though that
information was critical for him to know. Ren was already dead. Whether Scott knew what
happened or not wouldn’t change anything.
With that in mind, Tango continued to wander around the area. “Why is it always our base that gets
messed with?” The blaze said trying to push what looked to be part of a collapsed wall to the side
only to find more burnt wood underneath it.
“Guess we’re just unlucky.” Scott sighed.
Tango tried looking in another area. He tried the best he could to walk over everything without
tripping. As he got closer to what he assumed to have been the garden however, he noticed
something that caught his eye. Right across from him, next to a part of the gazebo that was still
standing, was what looked like a pool of water.
For one swift moment, Tango decided to neglect efficiency in exchange for satisfying his curiosity.
He made his way over to the pool carefully, getting close enough to lean his head fully over it. To
his pleasant surprise, every single one of the fish that he and Scott had caught earlier were still
mindlessly swimming around as if nothing had happened.
Tango raised his voice, calling Scott over, who had yet to notice that he’d strayed away. “Hey! It
looks like the fish survived, at least!”
He heard Scott suddenly let out a loud gasp as he immediately started running over to where Tango
was.
“Wait—actually??” He exclaimed, peering his head over the pond.
“I didn’t even notice they were still there!”
Tango let out a small chuckle at the other’s reaction. For some reason, that seemed like the most
genuinely ‘Scott’ reaction that he could have given. And sure, Tango was glad that at least some
part of what they’d made had survived, but mostly, he was just happy that Scott was happy.
He was always so cute whenever he’d get excited…
Tango felt his cheeks grow warm all over again. He was never going to get used to these new,
unfiltered thoughts he was now having about Scott, was he?
The blaze tried to distract himself once more by continuing his search. Eventually, after removing
enough layers of burnt wood, he and Scott were able to find the chest he’d hidden. Which
thankfully, was completely unscathed.
“Oh thank god, it wasn’t blown up.” Scott sighed with relief.
Tango brushed some of the rubble off the top of the container and pried it open. Inside were a
whole host of items. Some backup sets of armor to replace whatever parts of Scott’s had
despawned, enough food to last them for at least a few hours, most of the diamonds they’d gotten
from their enchanting deal, and a large amount of iron and some gold.
Tango started piling everything into his inventory, as did Scott. “If I had a diamond for every time
you’ve saved us…” Scott laughed, shaking his head.
“—And lost one for every time I’ve endangered us-“ Tango lightly jested back.
“The same could be said of me.” Scott continued.
Tango grinned, rolling his eyes. “Did you and Jimmy also juggle the same kind of back-and-fourth
nonsense from time to time?” He asked the question with genuine curiosity.
“Did you with him? ” Scott said, turning his head and raising an eyebrow.
It was then that they both paused. Tango stared a the other. It really was kind of amazing how so
many of their conversations had managed to somehow swerve back around to Jimmy. And while
the act of talking about him had been becoming increasingly less tense as of recently, that certainly
wasn’t the case right now. Not after what Scott had managed to figure out about Jimmy and his
feelings for him.
Now, it all just felt upsetting. Hopeless , even…
“Dumb question…” Scott muttered to himself, looking away from Tango once more to vanish the
remaining items into his inventory.
Tango tried to open his mouth, unsure of what he wanted to say to that, but Scott was already
walking off again.
At the sight of that, something in Tango shifted.
Deep down, he knew that Scott was only trying to avoid conversation for the time being. He knew
that he was just trying to move quickly like they had planned so that Impulse and Bdubs didn’t
have to stall the withers for too long. But on the surface of his thoughts, the red haze in his mind
was taking over, and it was currently telling Tango that he shouldn’t let his prey get away.
Tango started following Scott at a brisk pace, his movements still, but quick as he summoned a
sword from his inventory and held it in both hands, ready to swipe at the other as soon as he got
close enough—
“Tango…?” Scott had turned his head around to see if Tango had been following him. The blaze
saw the other’s face go pale as soon as their eyes locked.
Tango looked down at his sword, then back up at Scott.
What… was he doing?
Scott blinked. “Are- are you-?”
“I’m fine.” Tango cut him off, quickly coming back to his senses. “I’m fine…”
He didn’t feel very fine, if he were being honest. He was frustrated at himself for getting distracted
and not keeping a tighter hold on his sanity, but also at Scott, for being so damn relentless in
wanting him here. Didn’t he know he was only putting them both in danger by insisting that he
stay by his side? It was a bad strategy, one dictated by emotions rather than the logic that Scott
would normally take into consideration with these types of things. But Tango supposed that he
must have been an exception to the rules. In this case, anyway.
“You should- you should probably hang on to this…” Tango said sheepishly as he handed his
sword over to Scott.
The other looked the item up and down before accepting it reluctantly. “Just for the time being.”
He replied.
They continued walking back. Tango felt himself getting more anxious with every minute that
passed. He wondered if giving Scott his sword even made any difference. What was he even
suppose to do with it? Defend himself from him if he attacked again? That would only end with
him killing himself through a phantom death. If anything, it’d be safer for Scott to just let him kill
him in that case. Then at least he wouldn’t have to worry about him anymore since he would have
effectively killed himself!
But… that wasn’t the goal here, was it? Scott had made his intentions very clear. He wanted both
of them to stay alive in this game for as long as possible. That was what they were aiming to
achieve.
Tango wondered what would happen if they somehow managed to make it to the very end of the
game together. If it was just them, all alone, simply putting off their future until one of them finally
decided to end it for good. Would they get into an argument over it? Would Scott still insist on
staying despite it being pointless? In the end, he supposed this was all just a means of
procrastination. He knew that Scott was more than smart enough to understand that much. There
would be an end to this eventually, and when that end came, he just hoped they’d be ready for it.
Tango knew himself that he was more than ready to see Jimmy again. He missed him terribly. But
assuming that he was currently in the void, essentially sleeping away any further events that might
possibly occur during the game and ready to wake up when it ended with memories only as fresh
as his most recent death—well, at least then Jimmy wouldn’t be actively missing them either. At
least he wouldn’t have to feel guilty over choosing to stay with Scott for a little longer since such a
choice would ultimately harm no one other than himself.
The blaze tried to search for a solution to all this. He knew his emotions as a red life were only
going to get worse as time progressed, so he needed someone to kill, asap.
That was when his thoughts turned to Lizzie once more. As far as he knew, her final life was still
up for grabs (assuming Joel would even let him hunt him down and stab him, of course). So
despite how much the thought of killing her unsettled him, at least he still had her as a very last
resort if worst came to worst.
“Y’know, I don’t think I ever fully told you about that deal I made with Lizzie.” Tango spoke up,
intent on letting Scott in on his thoughts.
Scott seemed surprised to hear him talking again, but went ahead with the conversation anyway.
“Something having to do with you killing her?” He noted. “That’s all I really know. Wasn’t sure if
it was just an inside joke between you two or what…”
“Well, you’re right about that.” Tango said. “The deal was that she had to have an honest, one-on-
one talk with Joel about their problems before she went down to red. If not, then I’d hunt one of her
teammates down—probably Joel—and take her final life myself.”
Scott laughed. “That sounds like less of a deal and more of a threat if I’m being honest.”
“We called it a ‘deadline.’” Tango shrugged, though he didn’t deny that Scott had a point with that
implication.
“Right… So that’s why she offered you her final life yesterday? And just a short while ago?”
“Exactly.” The blaze nodded. “So I’m just letting you know that if we can’t find Grian or Bigb in
time… I- um—I at least have her as a last resort, you know?”
Scott hummed.
“A very, very last resort though.”
Scott seemed surprisingly okay with this idea, though Tango wasn’t sure whether to count that as a
good thing or a bad thing yet.
“Well, let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that.”
“Yeah…” Tango spoke reluctantly. He really did hope he wouldn’t have to kill one of his allies,
even if she was completely on board with it.
Before he could think on it any longer, both he and Scott heard their comms go off with an alert.
Tango brought the screen up to his face, at first assuming that Lizzie and Joel had just gotten back
to spawn early and were letting Bdubs know that he could stop luring the wither away, or maybe
Cleo or Etho had finally replied to Scott’s warning about what was going on.
What he really ended up reading however, was just about the last thing either of them would have
expected.
ImpulseSV tried to swim in lava
Tango stopped walking, both he and Scott looking up from their devices to shoot a confused look
at each other. It was weird seeing a solo death message in the chat for the very first time in this
game. His death hadn’t been a phantom one, but a completely ordinary one instead thanks to
Impulse’s lack of teammates.
It was Tango who ended up being the first to react to the alert.
<Tango> DUDE! EXCUSE ME??
He knew Impulse had just died and was likely still trying to figure out what had happened to him,
but to Tango’s surprise, his response came fairly quickly.
<ImpulseSV> I can explain
He waited a moment.
<ImpulseSV> Actually
<ImpulseSV> No
<ImpulseSV> I can’t
Damn it, Impulse!
<LDShadowLady> TRY
<ImpulseSV> I thought maybe I could kill the wither on my own if I just speed-walked backwards
while firing arrows at it from a safe enough distance
<ImpulseSV> It went pretty well for like five minutes
<ImpulseSV> Until I forgot to pay attention to where I was walking…
Tango let out a loud groan. Of all the ways this plan could have gone south— really??
<Smallishbeans> You did NOT just walk backwards into a pool of lava
<ImpulseSV> …
<Tango> This was why we told you not to fight it alone!!!
<ImpulseSV> I have worse news
<Smajor1995> Oh god
<ImpulseSV> I think I was only like a dozen or so meters away from Cleo’s base when I died
Then, before anyone could even begin to understand what that might mean for Cleo, a new
message had flashed on their screens, one that put it into words perfectly.
ZombieCleo was blown up by wither
BdoubleO100 died
“Hello? Are you kidding me??” Tango looked over to Scott, who now had his comm locked in a
death grip.
Another message lit up the screen.
<Grian> AHAHAHAHA-
Unbelievable.
Grian would find all this funny, wouldn’t he?
<LDShadowLady> GRIAN!!!
<Tango> I know you’re reading this Grian
<Tango> Where are you?!
<Grian> Wouldn’t you like to know? ;)
<Smallishbeans> I am at my actual limits with you man
<Grian> If you’re so desperate to find me, here’s a hint to where I am
<Grian> I’m underground
<Grian> And it’s very loud here
<Smajor1995> I will literally kill you
<Grian> Gonna have to kill my withers first :D
<Tango> GRIANNNNN!!
Grian didn’t bother replying after that, but that hardly mattered right now, given how quickly their
plan had gone downhill.
Impulse and Bdubs were now probably back at the tower after respawning, which meant the
withers had no players to lock on to and were now running loose again. Thankfully, Cleo had
seemed to have escaped whatever situation they’d been put in just then, as no other death messages
had appeared on screen for the entirety of their conversation, but what did that mean for the rest for
them? Was spawn even safe anymore?
<ZombieCleo> Well I don’t know what the hell THAT just was
<ZombieCleo> But I’d appreciate an explanation if you don’t mind
Cleo had started sending messages. That was good. It confirmed that they were okay.
<Smajor1995> Come meet us at spawn and we’ll explain everything
<ZombieCleo> Fine
<Smajor1995> And also bring lots of food
Tango shot his head up and looked at Scott. The man put a hand to his mouth, snickering.
<ZombieCleo> You’re so greedy. The audacity…
<ZombieCleo> Alright
<ZombieCleo> Omw
Well, at least that seemed to work. Now they had more manpower just in case things somehow got
even worse.
Tango saw Scott gesture for them to keep moving, and so that’s exactly what they did. As they
continued making their way back to spawn, all they could really hope for now was that thing’s
didn’t go even farther downhill from here than they already had. But despite trying to do that, there
was still no denying it.
This plan just got a whole lot more complicated.
Chapter End Notes
Scott - Red
Jimmy - X
Tango - Red
Cleo - Yellow
Bdubs - Red
Etho - Red
Grian - Yellow
Scar - X
Bigb - Red
Ren - X
Martyn - X
Impulse - Red
Pearl - X
Joel - Red
Lizzie - Red
Chaos
Chapter Summary
Cleo joins the new alliance. Scott, Tango, Bdubs, and Impulse try to blow up the
wither. Tango and Lizzie are barely holding it together.
Chapter Notes
It’s been a year since I’ve started this fic and while I was hoping to get it all done
before then, it looks like that won’t be the case. But to everyone who’s made it this far
or has stuck with it for this long or who simply gave it a shot, I can’t begin to tell you
how thankful I am. It’s been a crazy ride and there’s still some more craziness yet to
come!
It was obvious that Tango had been fighting to hold back on his killing urges for a while now.
Scott worried that when things came down to it, there really would be no other option than to have
him kill of one of their allies. Although it wasn’t as though betrayal was anything out of the
ordinary for these games. Nothing was permanent and if anything, it only ever added to the fun and
mystery of things. But even with all that in mind, Scott could still see how hesitant Tango was
about the idea of going through with it. These were the people who had been helping them survive
throughout this entire game, after all. It would be a shame to turn on them now, even if most of
them were starting to see a shift in the server’s atmosphere coming with how many reds were
starting to appear.
Who knows? Maybe he could convince Tango to kill Impulse if things really got to that point. As
petty as that would be. All that aside, at least one thing hadn’t gone downhill yet.
“Everything looks fine to me.” Scott heard Tango say as he gazed around the area.
“Yeah.” Scott replied. “If there were any withers nearby, we’d probably hear them coming first
anyway.”
Spawn still looked to be as safe a place as ever. For now, anyway. Scott just hoped that each of the
withers would stay in their respective areas and not wander off back here.
Him and Tango didn’t need to wait very long until the first few players started making their way
back, who to Scott’s mild annoyance, ended up first being Impulse along with Bdubs. Tango, of
course, didn’t seem as bothered by this, as he was the first to start walking up to them.
“Oh!” Scott heard him say. “Looks like they made it back.”
He rolled his eyes at Impulse, but still made an effort to follow Tango in approaching them. “I still
don’t get why you’re choosing to forgive him so easily.” Scott said in a low voice.
To his surprise, Tango hadn’t been very quick to try and defend the guy.
“Well, I guess I technically haven’t yet.” The blaze shrugged. “But I don’t just want to cut him out
of my life forever either. I’ve known him for too long to make a decision like that so quickly.”
Scott looked at the other, unsure of what to say. Though to him, the admission that Tango hadn’t
outright forgiven his ex for everything but had instead chosen to make him earn it demonstrated a
certain resolve on Tango’s end that Scott could at least somewhat agree with. It would be
unreasonable for him to expect Tango to ‘cut him out of his life’, as he’d said.
The both of them continued to approach the pair until they met up in the middle.
“How’s your base?” Tango asked. “Is it still standing?”
“Yep. Thankfully.” Impulse replied. “Though I can’t say I’d care too much if something did
happen to it. Not like that thing could get any uglier anyway.”
That seemed to earn a laugh out of Tango and Bdubs, and from there, the conversation simply
delved into small talk for a few short minutes.
“Anyone know what’s even going on with Grian?” Bdubs chimed in after Tango had brought up
the subject of looking for him once the withers were killed.
“Beats me.” Impulse said. “Man’s been a total enigma for the past six months.”
“—I hear ya.” Another voice called. Scott, along with everyone else, turned their heads around to
see that Cleo had arrived.
“Seriously though,” She continued on while walking towards them before anyone could even greet
her. “he organizes this entire game, figures out a motive that would cause everyone he needed to
return to come back, and then when the game finally kicks off he just screws off into oblivion for
practically the entire session? I don’t get it!”
Scott was thankful to see that Cleo was still, in fact, acting like Cleo. He tried to keep from
laughing at her spontaneous appearance. “Same here.” He smirked.
“Seriously though, I have had it up to here with Grian!” Tango yelled, stretching a hand high above
his head.
“That makes five of us.” Impulse added.
“Here’s an idea.” Cleo continued. “How about we all go kill him again as soon as we’re done
killing these withers? I mean, hunting him down last time seemed to work out, didn’t it?”
Scott looked back at Tango, then turned his head around to her, nonchalantly gesturing to his
teammate with a nod of his head.
“ Erm —aside from the other deaths that happened in the process, I mean…” Cleo added
sheepishly.
“We were actually just talking about that.” Scott continued. “And I’m on board if you are.” His
statement was met with a few nods in agreement. He was glad to see they were all on the same
page so far, in that this pesky bird needed to be taken down a peg. “Let’s see how Joel and Lizzie
feel about it once they get back.”
Eventually, they did get back.

But it wasn’t just them who had decided to show up.
“Hey” Joel said, lazily waving a hand at everyone.
Immediately, Scott’s attention was drawn to the now suddenly present Etho who was standing next
to him.
“Uh, hi…” Etho added awkwardly.
Scott tilted his head at Lizzie as if to silently ask her for an explanation.
“We ran into him on our way back here.” Lizzie said, reading the room perfectly.
“Yeah, that.” Etho continued, now running a hand over the back of his head while looking directly
at Scott. “Thanks for the warning about the withers by the way. Sorry I didn’t answer back, I was
kind of in the middle of, uh, something-“
“Bigb tried to kill him.” Lizzie jumped back in cutting right to the chase.
Scott heard Cleo laugh from behind him. “Seriously??”
“Yep.” Etho sighed. “I didn’t want to fight him, so I just ran away. He’s totally out for blood now
though. Been acting weird since last night and I felt like he was gonna be ready to start attacking
people soon since yesterday. Didn’t think he’d go for me first though, but I should have known
better.” Etho went on. “There’s no discrimination in killing when it comes to being a red life.”
Given what Scott had witnessed with Tango no more than twenty minutes ago, he’d be tempted to
agree. “Speaking of red lives, what’s your status so far?”
Etho folded his arms tensely. “I’ll be honest, it’s getting there.” He admitted. “But I’d sooner run
myself far away from the group before killing anyone here. You have my word-“
The man winced for a second. He cut himself off and quickly looked at Joel, then, he turned his
head to the ground in what looked to be shame.
“On second thought—I guess my word isn’t all that good for anything, is it?”
Scott frowned. He wondered if Etho had been thinking over what he’d done with Joel’s secrets after
having promised not to tell them to anyone. Joel must have been thinking the same thing as well,
because just as Etho began to look as though he were contemplating on leaving instead of trying to
debate his case any further, Joel let out a loud groan right in the other’s direction.
“No one gives a damn about whether or not you can keep you word.” Joel said to Etho, his
frustrated voice sounding obviously fake in Scott’s opinion. “You’d still be a liability even if you
did manage to tear yourself away from the group as soon as you feel the urge to murder someone.”
Joel explained. “Listen, there’s seven of us and one of you, so I’d say we’re pretty safe anyways if
you do snap at some point, right guys?”
He looked at the rest of them for reassurance. Scott gave a half-hearted nod, as did a few others.
Joel made a good point, but all that aside, Scott couldn’t help but wonder whether or not Joel’s
overly-vocal frustration and excuse to keep Etho with them was a cover for what he was really
thinking…
Scott knew the dilemma must have been frustrating for him. Joel still didn’t want to forgive Etho
for breaking his trust that easily, but at the same time, he didn’t want to excuse his own actions
either. The whole situation left a bad taste in Scott’s mouth. He felt bad for essentially putting Joel
through this type of emotional confusion. But at the very least, the experience did seem to bring
him closer to Etho in a way where he’d come to understand his reasoning behind his actions better,
even if he was still in the wrong for the majority of things. Maybe they could continue to have a
talk about it later, but in the meantime, Scott only hoped that Joel didn’t let the guilt of telling
Jimmy’s own secrets get to him.
“I think we can trust him for now.” Lizzie agreed. “Besides, it’s not like many of us are in a much
better situation than him, right? Plus we could use the extra help.”
She wasn’t wrong that nearly all of them had turned red by now. Hopefully their convening would,
at the very least, least not turn into some kind of bloodbath.
“Alright.” Cleo said, flashing a calm smile at Etho. “Glad to have you back then.”
Etho smiled back at them with his eyes.
“Let’s get back to what we were doing, shall we?”
A near-full server alliance it was then…
They started off by equally distributing whatever items they could. Cleo with their beef, Lizzie and
Joel with their gunpowder and arrows, and everyone else with whatever extra ores they might have
had. Cleo admitted at one point that they would have brought along the enchanter, but that it was
also probably unlikely that anyone here would have enough xp to enchant anything after all the
dying that occurred this morning. Scott felt annoyed to admit that they were right about that,
unfortunately.
Once all that was done, the new attack strategy involved two plans. Plan A was to attack the
withers head-on one at a time like they had planned to originally. Considering how many people
there were in their group, the assumption was that it could be done fairly easily. However, in the
event that one or more of the red lives in the group appeared to start itching for a kill early on, the
wither could also be taken out with TNT—a riskier, yet quicker method for damage. That way,
they could all move on to looking for and killing Grian much faster.
All the talk of red lives snapping made Scott uneasy. He found himself looking over at Tango often
during the conversation. Before they’d left, he’d tried to hand the other back his sword, which he
accepted, albeit reluctantly.
“Everything’s going to be fine.” Scott tried to reassure him. “Remember, the sooner we get this
over with, the sooner we get to go beat up Grian.”
Tango smiled slightly at the joke and nodded, but ultimately said nothing.
When all was said and done, the group had started making their way back towards the last place
Impulse had lost his wither at: the Lighthouse.
“It chased me past this area before I was finally able to shake it off. Not sure if it’s still here
though.” Impulse spoke as they walked along the edge of the beach where the sand and dirt split
off.
They had mostly just been following the trail of debris from the wither’s last attack while
simultaneously searching the sky and listening for hissing noises. The Lighthouse was quite a sight
to see as they passed it. Half of the upper floor looked to have been blown open so wide that Scott
could make out some of the pieces of furniture still in there from an outside view. A lot of the
chests and stoves were burnt up and there was no bed to be seen. Poor Cleo must have actually still
been asleep before being woken up by a huge explosion. What a shitty way to start the day.
“Hey guys, we should split up to look for it. That would be a great idea, wouldn’t it?” Joel said as
they continued to walk. He managed to pull a few laughs out of some people, but any and all
conversation was cut off in an instance once a loud hissing noise rang through the air, alerting
everyone of the wither’s presence.
“…Well, looks like we won’t need to do that anyway.” Joel added.
The hissing noises grew louder and everyone took out their weapons. Scott shot a quick look over
to Tango to make sure he was still focused and sane, which luckily he seemed to be.
“Alright, here we go!” Impulse yelled out. And before anyone could say anything else, the flying
mob had shown itself, bursting noisily through a handful of trees that ran along the side of the
beach.
In a move that surprised everyone, Bdubs was the first to charge at it.
“LET’S DO THIS!!” He screeched enthusiastically, and Scott watched as the short man ran right at
the thing and proceeded to slash it through the ribs.
“Now you’re the one scaring ME here!” Impulse yelled in horror before bolting after his boyfriend.
Figuring it was all just a matter of stabbing and shooting from here, Scott joined in eagerly, as did
everyone else.
Dodging explosions while fighting was hard, but not as hard as it should have been had Scott been
fighting this thing with just himself and Tango. There was a lot of smoke and noise, a few people
got arrows shot at them accidentally from time to time, but other than that no one seemed to be
taking any hard damage. Whenever one person did get low on health, at least two more would step
up to cover them while they healed up. It was a good system, and all the gearing up they did
beforehand didn’t seem to have been for nothing. Before Scott knew it, the first wither was already
at half health, as demonstrated by the wither skeletons it started spawning in. But after having
killed all the skeletons, at that stage, the group had grown used to dodging its hits and killing it was
arguably now just a matter of patience and consistency.
“Nice!” Tango cheered as an arrow he’d fired landed directly in the wither’s eye.
Scott could hardly hear what he was saying over the noise, but was happy none the less that Tango
was in a better mood.
“Just a few more hits, I think!” Cleo voiced. Her words were also getting harder to hear. Had it
grown louder here since the first wither had shown up? It was a bit hard to tell.
Then, all of a sudden, the steady increase in hissing noises and explosions made sense.
Scott looked to the sky and saw that the second wither, despite all odds, had somehow wandered its
way from the west end of the border where Bdubs had lost it at to the east end near the beach.
“Oh you’ve gotta be kidding me!” Joel yelled.
Without any delay, the mob lowered itself and flew forward directly at everyone. Before Scott
knew it, skulls were falling from the sky at the rate of raindrops and no one could hear a thing that
anyone else was saying. There was double the smoke, double the explosions, double the noise. It
was chaos. Scott tried to break away from the first wither and find Tango, but he could hardly see
through all the smoke and destruction.
Then a voice finally reached out to him. “WE CAN’T HAVE THEM BOTH IN ONE SPOT!”
Lizzie screamed at the top of her lungs. And she was right. Separately, killing one wither with just
half the people in their group was still doable. But together, all fighting did was create disorganized
confusion, regardless of how much manpower they had.
So, Scott did the only thing he could do. He ran.
He just hoped that Tango was running in the same direction.

The explosions and hissing continued to get quieter the farther Scott ran. So too was there less
smoke and sand clogging the air. Eventually, neither of the withers seemed to be locked on him
anymore. All Scott could do at that point was hold his breath as his blackened (and hopefully not
too low) hearts ticked down one by one. The withering effect he’d gotten earlier lasted for a few
more seconds before disappearing completely.
Still four hearts left. Thank god.
Scott! Over here!”
Scott heard Tango’s voice calling him from his right side. Scott sighed with relief and changed his
direction to run to where he heard him. He began to see the silhouettes of three people through the
haze as he continued. Then he quickly got close enough to distinguish them as Impulse, Bdubs, and
as expected, Tango.
Tango seemed to smile with relief when he saw him. As soon as Scott reached him, the now four
of them continued to run until the noises sounded far enough to be less of a concern.
Just as Scott was starting to wonder where everyone else had ran off to, he and everyone else’s
comms went off.
Tango let out a hiss. “That’s not good.” He winced.
He was right. It wasn’t good. None of them had the time to check their devices at the moment, but
it still went unsaid that unless that particular death just then happened to be Cleo’s, then that meant
that the total number of players on this server had just dropped from ten—to nine.
Once it was actually quiet enough for the four of them to hear each other, they slowed to a brisk
walk rather than a sprint. They were close enough to still see the wither that had been following
them, but also far away enough for it to not be locked on them anymore. The second wither
however, was nowhere to be seen. Scott hoped that all of their other allies still had a handle on it.
Decidedly, the remains of the lighthouse seemed to be the best and closest place for them to take
cover behind. Only then, when they were able to find a place where they could stay hidden while
still hearing the noises that the wither was making while wandering the around the beach, did they
all finally check their comms.
LDShadowLady was blown up by wither
Smallishbeans died
Damn it…” Scott whispered under his breath. There goes Joel. He did feel partially sad and
frustrated that he wouldn’t be able to talk to his friend more during the game, but then, there was
always after, he supposed.
Although Scott still feared to even think about what an ‘after’ to this whole game would look
like…
“I’m assuming we’re going with plan B then?” Tango asked in between pants as he tried to recover
some of his breath. “Cause I don’t know about you guys, but I’m almost out of arrows.”
“Looks like I am too.” Impulse replied, putting his comm away and summoning a fistful of TNT in
its place. “Anyone know how to set up a TNT trap? Cause we’re gonna need a lot of it if we want
to finish that thing off in one go and I’d rather not get blown up in the process thank you very
much.”
Impulse had a point. Ideally, they’d be able to stack up a bunch of TNT all in one spot, lure the
wither over it, and somehow manage to get away before it blew up while having the trap go off at
a precise enough time to do the maximum amount of damage.
So, to avoid this scenario, Scott’s mind immediately went to the trap that they’d previously used to
kill Grian.
“We can use a flame bow.” Scott said, voicing his idea. “It would let us set it off from a far away
distance.”
Impulse knit his brows together in worry. “That’d be a great idea, but do any of us actually have a
flame bow?”
“Shoot…” Scott muttered. He recalled Lizzie having been the only one of them to possess one on
account of her group’s villager trading system.
The explosions were growing steadily closer now, but it would still be a while before any of them
needed to start running again.
“Enderpearls.” Bdubs said, snapping his fingers. “I have some in my inventory. Maybe we can lure
the wither close enough to the trap and then teleport away?”
“We could do that…” Impulse said. “If someone’s willing to run the risk of taking two hearts
worth of damage while possibly being under the wither effect and not knowing for sure how many
hearts they have left.”
Everyone looked around at each other.
They all silently agreed to put that idea in the ‘maybe’ category.
“A button maybe?” Impulse suggested. “We can push it with an arrow—but I guess we’d have to
have some pretty good aim if we were to hit it while being far enough away from the blast area…”
“Do we need someone to sacrifice themselves here?” Tango said casually. “Cause if that’s the
case-“
Scott snapped his head up at the blaze. “Don’t joke about that!” He yelled, the words coming out a
bit to seriously in contrast to Tango’s joking tone. Though Scott hadn’t realized it until after he’d
said it.
“Sorry…” Tango frowned.
Scott quickly wished he hadn’t spoken to him like that. But instead of dwelling on it, he focused on
trying to come up with another idea. In a last-ditch attempt to figure out a better option, Scott began
shuffling through his inventory. There were plenty of things he had in there that would be
incredibly useful for fighting against people, but none that would ignite a stack of TNT from a
distance to safely blow up a wither. Maybe they should just wing it? Use what little arrows they
had left to fight the mob from a distance and then try to use their swords for the rest of the fight?
That might be less riskier than the enderpearl idea, but then again, at least the enderpearl idea
would only get one person killed at worst—
Scott paused his thinking for just a second as his eyes drifted on to a shiny item that stood out in his
inventory.
The ghast tear.
Somehow, someway, even after each of his respawns, he’d still been carrying that item around
since he first retrieved it in the nether. Back then, that ghast had been a nuance to him. Now, it
might just be the answer he’d been looking for.
“Tango?” Scott focused on summoning the ghast tear into his hands and held it up for the other to
see. “Do you still have that obsidian that Cleo gave you before we left to go find Grian?”
He watched as Tango looked at him, then down at the teardrop, then back up at him, now sporting
a wide grin on his face.
“You bet I do.” The blaze replied, reading Scott’s intentions perfectly as he pulled out exactly one,
single piece of obsidian.
Bdubs and Impulse seemed to have caught on to what they were trying to do by then.
“We can use my pearls!” Bdubs said enthusiastically. “Got a blaze rod from raiding the nether
too.”
“And there’s sand pretty much everywhere…” Impulse added.
Nothing else needed to be said after that. Each of them got to work, setting down multiple furnaces
so as to cook the sand into glass quicker. Meanwhile, the wither was beginning to run out of beach
to explore and could be heard slowly approaching the Lighthouse again. Although it was still of
less concern to the group in the meantime. The wither was an extremely powerful mob but it was
also a very slow one.
Soon enough, Scott was holding in his hands the final product of what they’d been trying to make.
Something big enough to be shot at from a distance that could be detonated using just a regular
bow while also setting off any TNT that would be surrounding it.
“Going for a bit of flare with this trap I see…” Impulse smirked as each of them eyed the purple,
glowing geometric artifact in awe.
“Just a little something to make it look pretty.” Scott smirked, the small end crystal hovering in
between his hands.
Tango chuckled. “It’ll add a hefty amount of damage to the wither too, won’t it?”
“If we’re lucky, this might get rid of the rest of its health all in one go.” Scott nodded. “We still
gotta figure out who’s gonna be the bait though.”
Hesitantly, Tango raised a hand halfway up in the air. “I’m fast.” He shrugged. “I can do it.”
Scott bit his lip.
“Unless… you don’t want me to? It’s your life, of course. So it’s your call.”
Scott sighed. Who was he to keep Tango from trying something like this if he really wanted to?
This was the plan with the least amount of risk to it, after all. And besides, whether it be his life
that was lost in this or Tango’s, it didn’t really matter. Not in the long run. Either he wouldn’t be
able to put off returning to the real world anymore, or he’d simply be left to wait in this one
indefinitely… without Tango.
In more than one way, Tango’s life was his life and the other way around. At least in this game it
was. This risk was both of theirs.
“No.” Scott answered. “You’re right. You’d probably give us the best odds of succeeding.”
No one else seemed to object to that.
The hissing was getting louder now, so when they were ready, Scott gave Tango the ‘all clear’ and
let him make his move. Ideally, he’d do a repeat of what Impulse and Bdubs had tried to do
previously. He’d get the wither’s attention and lead it far away enough so as to keep it from
locking on to any of them. While he was doing that, the rest of them would pool together all the
TNT they’d gotten from Lizzie and Joel into one pile and top it off with a block of obsidian and the
end crystal they’d made. It had also been Bdubs’ idea to use the remaining obsidian that Tango had
to build a wall that would protect them from the blast, though it would be a small one given the
limited supplies they were working with. Once Tango saw that they had finished, he’d circle back
around and lure the mob over to the trap, ready to be detonated with a bow and arrow as soon as the
wither was on top of it—hopefully after he’d already run behind the wall they’d made. Bdubs had
given him an extra pearl to teleport him out of the blast area if he needed it, assuming he wasn’t
under a wither effect, but if he was… it was probably going to be a close call.
Thankfully, they’d actually managed to make it pretty far in the plan. After a few minutes, Tango
was already running his way back towards the front of the lighthouse with the wither on his tail.
Scott waited a far distance away from the trap, bow in hand ready to shoot the crystal at a
moment’s notice, same as Impulse and Bdubs. They figured that at this distance, there was still a
chance they might miss the crystal entirely when it finally came time to shoot it, so having all three
of them fire at the same time strengthened their odds. If all else failed, hopefully the wither would
detonate the pile on its own with its sculls, even if it did mean they’d achieve a far less accurate hit.
But more importantly, hopefully Tango would have also gotten out of the way by then…
“You see him, right?” Bdubs asked.
“Yeah.” Scott said, peering through the smoke and sand at the red figure in the distance. “I see
him. Just remember not to fire too early.”
It was clear that Tango didn’t need to be fast for the sake of outrunning the wither. No, he needed
to be fast enough to get out of the way in time.
The blaze was nearing them now. Almost there…
“Get ready.” Scott said, pulling his bow back. He noticed Bdubs flinch as one of the heads landed
only a few meters away from one of the TNT stacks nearly blowing it up too early.
Tango was climbing over the stack now. He looked behind him to check that the mob was still a
safe distance away. And it was, but to that end it was no longer far away enough to not lock on to
them.
Scott saw the creature raise its head, attention now trained on them rather than Tango, though
thankfully still moving in the right direction.
“Scott—it sees us…” Impulse pointed out, a clear shake in his voice.
“Not yet.” Scott said, trying not to break his composure.
The wither was almost within the right distance of the stack now. Tango was about halfway to the
safe point, but the mob was still moving.
“Scott??”
“Wait till Tango’s out of the way…” He repeated. Any second now…
He saw the blaze look behind him one last time before shifting into a sprit and running the last few
meters in quick succession. The wither charged straight forward, briefly passing the center of the
stack of TNT.
“Now!”
All three bows went off at once just as Tango sprinted past them, having gained too much
momentum to stop right away.
At that stage Scott was glad they’d decided to all fire at the same time, as only one of the arrows
seemed to hit its mark: Bdubs’.
They were afforded one more second to duck back behind the wall before the loudest explosion
that Scott had ever heard during any of the Life games had gone off. Everyone waited it out for the
few seconds that it lasted. Scott had his ears covered simply for comfort, but as he turned to look
back at where Tango was, he could see that the other had fallen to his side, eyes tightly shut as he
grit his teeth. His hands pressed so tightly to the sides of his head it looked like he was trying to
crush his own scull.
Scott had forgotten that Tango was scared of loud noises.
He must have been terrified this entire time…

Thankfully, the explosion had ended as soon as it started. Slowly, Scott raised his head to peer over
the wall.
—Only to see that the wither was still alive—and much angrier than before, looking as though it
were ready to charge at them.
“It’s still standing!” Bdubs yelled in horror.
Before anyone could make a move, Impulse was already on his feet. “Not for long!”
Scott watched as he ran at full speed towards the angry mob, swapping his bow out for a sword and
putting the strength of his entire body behind a single swing. Impulse had to jump to reach it, but
the hit ended up being strong enough to deal the final blow, slicing halfway down it’s bony body.
The wither let out a final shriek before fading away completely and dropping a nether star in its
place.
Scott emerged from the viewing spot, as did Bdubs and Tango—who was the first to run up to
Impulse as he lay in the sand collapsed and exhausted.
“Dude—!” Tango yelled, taking a knee and putting a hand to his friend’s shoulder. “That was so
stupid! What is wrong with you??”
Impulse, unexpectedly, flopped over onto his back and started laughing. “I just figured it had to be
low!”
Tango didn’t seem to accept this excuse for a second. “That doesn’t mean you run up and stab the
thing! You maniac!!”
Before the blaze could chew out the other any more, Bdubs had arrived to do it for him.
“I tell you not to scare me again and WHAT do you DO??” He spoke, glaring down at Impulse
from where he was standing with his hands on his hips.
“Sorry Bdubs.” Impulse laughed. “Consider it revenge for what you did. Last time I’m doing that, I
promise.”
Bdubs groaned. He held a hand out to help his boyfriend up. “Next time, I’m doing the risky stuff.
Ya hear?”
“…Okay. That’s fair.”
Impulse was able to stand back up. He held the nether star in his hands and showed it to Bdubs as
the two of them talked about what to do with it or if there was even anything they could do with it
this late in the game. Scott tried to make sure that Tango was still okay after the explosion, which
to his relief, he was. For a few moments, everything seemed like it was going to be alright. Though
just as Scott’s attention was beginning to circle back around to whether or not the other half of their
alliance still needed help, a noise went off on everyone’s communicator.
Scott saw Tango’s face go pale. He took out his device, holding his breath as he turned it on.
Etho was shot by LDShadowLady
ZombieCleo died.
“Guys…?” Tango said slowly.
“What—What happened??” Bdubs exclaimed.
He couldn’t be sure of anything yet, but Scott did have a theory. “I think Lizzie finally snapped.”
He responded.
“Did Joel’s death push her over the edge or something?” Tango wondered quietly.
“Maybe Etho attacked her first?” Impulse said. It seemed a bit of a sad assumption to have given
what Etho had said to them earlier, but it was still very possible.
“Either way, looks like Grian’s the last higher-color life. Again.” Impulse groaned. “We’re all still
going to kill him after this, right?”
Scott ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. “Obviously.” He was angry at himself for letting this
happen again, but while he did still have a bone to pick with Grian, there were also some much
more important things that he’d prefer to worry about at the moment.
They started debating on whether or not they should go over to the other group to lend a hand, or if
they should avoid them for now, wondering if any of them were still hostile. Then, once the
decision seemed to be made to go check on them, it suddenly didn’t matter.
“Everything alright over there?” Scott heard Etho’s voice shouting to them in the distance.
Surprisingly, he and Lizzie were walking together towards the edge of the beach, neither of them
tense nor actively fighting, which only piqued Scott’s curiosity as to what had happened.
“We’re good, but what the heck happened with you?” Scott asked, making his way towards them
as well. “Is the other wither dead?”
“It is.” Lizzie said, her voice neutral. It was only when he’d gotten closer to her that Scott was able
to see just how beat up and tired the two looked. Lizzie in particular looked downright exhausted,
but more than that, she just looked sad.
Scott wanted to ask her if she was okay, what happened with Joel, but before he could she was
already talking again.
“Spawn shouldn’t be too far away.” Lizzie continued, turning heel again and making a guiding
motion to all of them. “Let’s meet up with Cleo there and we can explain everything then.”
“Is it safe to travel with you though?” Bdubs asked, popping his head up. It was a difficult question
to ask, but after seeing someone get murdered on their screens, it was also a reasonable one.
“It’s fine now, yes.” Lizzie said. “That last kill was all me.” Etho didn’t prompt any of it.” She then
looked at Etho, her brows furrowing.
“I’m sorry…”
Etho shook his head. “I told you, it’s nothing to beat yourself up over. Joel died in such a
preventable way—I was angry about it too.”
“But not so angry that you ended up taking it out on the first person you saw…” Lizzie let out a
frustrated sigh, putting a hand to her forehead.
Etho said nothing.
So that was what happened, wasn’t it? Scott supposed that Lizzie’s urge to kill must have been
pushed over the edge by her husband’s death and had gotten the better of her at the most
inconvenient time possible. Scott wondered if Etho had even tried to fight her back. It would have
been self defense, but could he bring himself to do it after having caused her so much pain
beforehand? Probably not.
Etho turned to the rest of them. “Let’s just head out and regroup, okay?”
Both of them did seem fairly calm over the situation. Even if they did want to fight they were
outnumbered, and although Scott didn’t want to have to kill Lizzie—or indirectly, Cleo—if it came
to that… he knew he would if he had to.
But nothing like that ended up happening. True to their word, the walk back to spawn was brisk
and void of any conflict, albeit somewhat awkwardly silent. The entire time, Scott kept looking
back over to Tango to make sure he was feeling alright, which admittedly, he didn’t look to be.
He’d handed Scott his sword back, insisting that he go back to holding on to it for the time being,
during which he continued to twitch and shake his head in a mildly erratic fashion. Scott tried
talking with him to keep him distracted but it seemed to help very little.
When they did end up reaching spawn, Cleo was, as expected, already waiting for them once they
got there. Scott watched as Etho handed her back her stuff while Lizzie went on a tangent about
what she’d done and how sorry she was.
“Lizzie I told you, you don’t have to apologize.” Cleo tried to reassure her. She sighed, looking
down and putting a had on her hip. “If anything, I’m less upset about losing a life and more upset
that Grian’s the last yellow.”
Now there was something they could all agree on.

“Well, I’m still sorry anyway.” Lizzie repeated. Scott noticed how her tone had gone even, voice
quiet as if she had something else she wanted to address but was struggling to say it.
Then, out of nowhere, she gave Etho a sad smile and directed her attention at him.
“You know… I only joined this game as a way to test if Joel had actually moved on from you.”
Etho somewhat sputtered at those words. Scott couldn’t say he blamed him. For a second, he
wondered if Lizzie was mad at him for what he’d done much earlier, despite not having shown any
kind of genuine anger towards him after everything that had happened.
Lizzie waited for him to quiet, then she went on. “—And while he did end up failing that test in
some way, I consider it victory enough that he chose to come to me first about his feelings. It
wasn’t his fault I was too scared to even hear him out.”
Now, Scott was confused. As was everyone else it seemed.
“What are you saying?” Etho asked.
“I’m saying I’m done here.” Lizzie answered bluntly. “It’s been fun, and I’m glad I got to know
you Etho, but I think it’s only fair that I forfeit my life in exchange for killing one of your allies.”
Again Etho looked shocked. But this time, it was Tango who spoke up. “Hang on- no one’s asking
you to do that, Lizzie.”
Scott saw Lizzie look at him calmly. “I know. But I’ve seen you twitching about this entire time,
Tango.”
Looks like he hadn’t been the only one to notice that…
“Your movements are brash, your pupils grow small and defensive whenever someone breaks out a
weapon… You’re like how I was. Just barely holding it together now, aren’t you?”
Tango stood there, his movements tense. “I can handle myself for at least a little longer.”
“Are you really willing to bet on that?”
Lizzie countered. “I mean, I sure thought I could too, but apparently that wasn’t the case.” She then
took a step forward, smiling gently at him. “Come on now, I’m genuinely asking this time.
Besides, I missed my deadline, remember?”
Scott looked between the both of them. Tango still seemed unconvinced, though nearly there, if
only because of his heightened desire to kill. Scott however, wasn’t sure how to feel about all of
this. He thought he’d be more okay with it when the time came, but now that he was actually
seeing it play out, it just felt sad. To that end, Cleo looked even more concerned.
“And to be honest,” Lizzie continued. “I would like to see my husband again soon. Assuming he’s
chosen to go and remain as a ghost like usual, of course.”
Scott couldn’t deny that his friend sounded genuine. If what she said was true, then what reason
did Tango still have to hold back?
Tango seemed to be thinking the same thing. And those words ended up being what finally got him
to cave.
“Scott…” The blaze said. He faced Scott, looking ashamed at what it was he was asking as he
went to hold his hand out.
Scott knew exactly what the other wanted and proceeded to summon his sword and hand it back to
him.
Lizzie still appeared as calm and collected as ever, as if she’d been expecting this outcome from
the very beginning. Even during their walk back to spawn, she, unlike Etho, hadn’t eaten a single
thing post-battle. She wanted to come here weak so that she would die in one hit. She didn’t want
Tango second guessing himself halfway through killing her like he had with Impulse. It was
morbid, but clever.
Lizzie turned her head again. “We’re still having tea after this, right Etho?” She asked.
“I- ah- yeah—I mean, if you still want to?” Etho stammered out.
Lizzie hummed contently, looking at all the other players surrounding her. “Guess I’ll see you all
on the other side then. I wish you the best of luck.”
A few people said goodbye, Scott being one of them. Cleo simply bit their lip and said nothing. In
the end, no one tried to object to her decision, and, in a gesture that Scott assumed Lizzie must have
surely picked up from Ren at some point—she essentially told her executioner to get on with it.
“Go ahead and do the honors, Tango.” Lizzie smiled.
Scott watched Tango step forward and draw his sword back, using what were probably the final
reminants of his willpower to keep himself from killing her for just long enough to say goodbye
himself.
“Thank you.” Tango said to her. “For everything.”
He made a powerful swing towards the base of Lizzie’s neck, and before it even passed all the way
through, she was gone.
LDShadowLady was slain by Tango
Chapter End Notes
I had to do so much minecraft research for this chapter and it ended up being way
longer than I thought it would, hence the lateness, but I hope you liked it!
Scott - Red
Jimmy - X
Tango - Red
Cleo - Red
Bdubs - Red
Etho - Red
Grian - Yellow
Scar - X
Bigb - Red
Ren - X
Martyn - X
Impulse - Red
Pearl - X
Joel - X
Lizzie - X
Curses
Chapter Summary
The remaining players seek out Grian and are lured into a new type of death game.
Chapter Notes
I had to do even MORE minecraft research for THIS chapter! (Hope this is all
accurate)
Killing Lizzie was like waking up from a dream.
Not in the sense where you realize something was fake the entire time, but more like you’ve been
awake and aware of what’s been going on around you, except everything just seemed a little… off.
Like everything felt wrong but you couldn’t remember what was so wrong about it because you
couldn’t recall what the real world had been like. And now that Tango did know, now that he’d
“woken up”, he only now understood what was so off about that “dream” he was having.
It was Scott. They way he held him that morning? While Tango had been able to recognize how
unnatural that was for them while it was happening, but he had never made the connection between
that act and Scott’s confession earlier that night. It could have been because he hadn’t yet realized
he’d been in love with him, but it also could have been the red haziness in his mind that wasn’t
letting him think completely straight. Not to mention that he hadn’t yet considered the weight of
everything they’d said to each other that morning, how Scott had held his had not too long after
like it was the most natural thing in the world, or everything else that came after.
He had to have been fully aware of how intimate he was being at least when they’d woken up that
morning, but then… was Scott even fully aware of what he was doing during everything that came
after his last death? Or was the red haze starting to dilute his thoughts as well?
Either way, waking up made Tango feel as though he could see again. Like the fog in his mind had
cleared completely. And for once, he didn’t feel scared or stressed or angry like he had when he’d
gotten his memories back after Double Life—no. This time, he felt excited!
What an idiot he’d been to even question if Scott held some similar feelings towards him. Of
course he did! He wouldn’t go as far as to say it was love, of course not, but he had to have felt
something strong at least! Maybe Impulse really was right. Maybe, just maybe, they did have a
shot at being something more…
Tango felt a bit guilty to be feeling so giddy after having just killed his friend, but his coherency
was back and he couldn’t deny that it felt amazing. This was probably the most confident he’d been
in days. A bright spark lit up inside him. He could do this. He could tell Scott how he felt and
maybe it wouldn’t end up ruining their relationship like he thought it would. Maybe Scott would
actually confess something back. This could be it! This really could be the solution that he had
been looking for!
Maybe they could actually all be happy… together.
“How are you feeling?”
Tango jolted as he felt Scott put a hand to his shoulder. He turned his head to look at him, the
other’s eyes filled with concern.
Tango vanished his sword and relaxed his shoulders. He smiled softly. “Good.” He answered with
complete honestly. “Really good…”
“Speaking of which,” Cleo stepped in. “how are you feeling, Scott?”
“I’m fine.” Scott answered quickly.
“You sure?”
“Yes.” He repeated with confidence. “I don’t snap easily. Remember?”
Tango knew that to be true, but did that still mean that Scott was able to keep his mind fully free of
haze and remain completely logical and aware all the time while being red? Perhaps not…
“Bit of a bold statement there, but I guess it does have some history to back it up.” Cleo shrugged.
On that subject, Tango still felt weary of Etho, but he decided that it was best to leave the
questioning as it was for now given that his friend hadn’t been acting antsy or anything like that
since he’d shown up.
“So, any ideas on what Grian was talking about when he said he was somewhere ‘underground’
and ‘loud?’” Etho spoke up.
Right, that.
Tango racked his mind for potential locations, and now, with a much clearer head screwed on than
he had before, it was easy for him to piece together some idea as to what location Grian might have
been referring to. His mind went back to the enormous cave that him, Scott, Cleo, and Etho had
visited a few days ago. The one where his assumed private conversation with Etho had been made
semi-public due to how loudly the walls echoed whenever someone uttered so much as a single
word above a whisper.
Well, there was their “underground” requirement. And there was their “loud” one.
“The cave.” Tango said bluntly. “Remember when we went there? It was so massive that even just
talking normally caused a loud echo.”
“Good point.” Etho said. “I’m confident that that’s where he was referring to in his message, but
knowing Grian, I wouldn’t put it past him to have just left a sign in that cave with another riddle for
us to solve with the intention of leading us on a wild goose chase.”
“That would be a very Grian thing to do…”
Bdubs sighed. “Well it’s not like we have any other hints as to where he is.”
“Or anything better to do.” Scott groaned.
As aware as he was that Scott couldn’t have known any better, that statement still frustrated Tango
just a little. Of course they had better things they could be doing. Or at least, that he could be
doing. What he should be doing is telling Scott how much he’d come to love him—as wild as that
concept still was to him. And he would do exactly that.
Just… as soon as they were alone again. Whenever that ended up being.
Who was he kidding? They were never getting another moment alone again, were they?
It was about halfway into their mildly frustrating walk over to the cave that Everyone’s comms
buzzed again. they all stopped walking, each of them taking a look around the group to see if
anyone had sent a message before quickly realizing that none of them had their devices out. With
that in mind, the message must have either been sent from Grian, or Bigb. Tango took his out,
guiltily hoping for it to have been a phantom death message for Bigb in particular.
Instead, he got something even more interesting.
<bigbst4tz2> I don’t know if you’re reading this
<bigbst4tz2> But I wanted to say that I’m sorry
Tango looked around once more. No one seemed to understand what was going on or who Bigb
was even talking to. Everyone except Etho, however, who Tango noticed was already typing
something back.
<Etho> I am.
Everyone was looking at him now. Guess Etho had been the one Bigb was trying to reach out to.
His next message was one of surprise.
<bigbst4tz2> Oh
<bigbst4tz2> Hey?
<Etho> Hey.
Tango curiously leaned over to whisper something in his friend’s ear. “Is he saying he’s sorry for
trying to kill you-?”
“ Shhh. ” Etho cut him off and continued to text without even looking at him. Tango let out an
annoyed huff and went back to looking at his own screen.
<bigbst4tz2> So, about this morning…
He called it.
<Etho> It’s cool
<Etho> It was nothing personal. I get it
Tango, still having stood close enough to see over Etho’s shoulder, could see that he was in the
middle of typing something new that appeared to start with “Are you okay?” Before another text
from Bigb interrupted him.
<bigbst4tz2> There was a lot of stuff I still wanted to talk to you about
<bigbst4tz2> Could we talk after the game is over?
Etho stared at his comm. He looked worried.
<Etho> Of course we can dude
It took Bigb a moment longer to reply, but eventually, he did.

<bigbst4tz2> Thank you
If Tango had to guess, he’d say that that “thank you” represented more to Etho than it seemed to on
a surface level. But it’s not like he could have possibly known what might have happened between
them during the short time they’d been together.
<bigbst4tz2> Also
<bigbst4tz2> I know what it is you’re probably trying to do right about now. And I just wanted to
say that I won’t try to stop you
Tango squinted at his comm. He heard Scott let out a quiet and confused “ What…? ” Upon
reading the next message.
<bigbst4tz2> So you don’t need to worry about me
Was this Bigb’s way of telling them he was alright with them killing him through Grian? Tango
felt a bit bad that he hadn’t even thought to ask for the guy’s permission considering that he wasn’t
even trying to help Grian in his plans anymore. Although a game was still a game, and Tango knew
that the group’s decision would have been the same with or without Bigb’s permission. But
regardless, Tango still felt glad that they now had it, although it made him worry somewhat as to
what could have possibly happened to have made Bigb finally want to leave the game—or at least
feel indifferent towards getting knocked out.
Before he could think on it any longer, another message came through.
<bigbst4tz2> I’ll even level the playing field a little for you
<Etho> Bigb…?
Etho stared at his comm nervously.

Then, Bigb dropped a bomb on all of them.
bigbst4tz2 fell from a high place
Grian died
Everyone let out their own equally surprised noises of shock and confusion, but none of them took
their eyes off the screen.
“Dude!!” Etho yelled, nearly dropping his comm. Tango wondered if he even realized that he’d
said that part out loud rather than in text.
<bigbst4tz2> Good luck
And that was it. No other messages came through from the guy, despite how much Etho and Cleo
appeared to keep pestering him. But whether he responded or not, it didn’t change the fact that
Grian was now a red life just like everyone else—made one on purpose through his own teammate
no less.
Come to think of it, had Grian been tuning in to that entire conversation? Had he been aware of
what Bigb was trying to do and said nothing about it? Because he certainly wasn’t saying anything
now! Even if he hadn’t been aware of any of this, a sudden respawn would have forced him to
acknowledge it, but still, nothing. No comment from Grian whatsoever.
It was honestly a little unsettling…
“Uh,” Impulse started. “should we like— thank him for that, or…?”
“No.” Etho answered. “He did it for his own sake.”
No one seemed to know exactly what Etho meant by that. If anything, it only made Tango more
concerned, but he said nothing.
Etho put his comm away. “So long as he’s not harming any of us, just let him do what he wants.
He’s not in a good headspace right now anyway.”
Tango hoped that Etho was simply making reference to Bigb’s red life status, but something told
him that wasn’t particularly the case.
“Let’s keep moving.”
And so, they did. No one in the group seemed to have been close enough to Bigb to care as much
about what he might have been thinking in those moments. Other than Etho, of course, who
seemed to be content with leaving him as he was anyway. But still, to Tango, something about it
just didn’t sit right with him…
At one point during the walk, Tango tried to hold Scott’s hand again.
He wasn’t just testing the waters when he tried to do it. No, he was also abusing his circumstances.
In his mind, if Scott felt it natural to hold hands to the point where he’d actively type messages out
with only one just to keep doing it, then what was there for him to be afraid of? What was stopping
them from doing it all the time?
Tango leaned in to Scott, who didn’t appear to suspect anything. He tried to reach for his hand as
casually as he could in what was probably the boldest and most absurd move he’d tried to pull
during this entire game.
And then, something stopped him.
He felt… icky—doing this. Not just because Scott wasn’t in the right mindset to fully acknowledge
how intimate they were being for a pair of “not friends”—as weird as the idea of non-consensual
hand-holding felt—it still felt wrong to initiate something like that with Scott while he was
possibly still in a state of mind that didn’t allow him to give the act as much consideration as he
normally would have. What if he regretted it later? Felt embarrassed by it? Tango knew that that
would break his heart a little, but less so because of rejection and more so because he touched Scott
in a way that he didn’t want him to.
The other reason it felt wrong, was because of Jimmy.
As certain as Tango was that he’d be completely okay with this, encourage it even, there was still
no denying the fact that they never actually had the chance to fully sit down and talk about
something like this. As positive as he was about how Jimmy might take it, he’d technically still
never gotten the “okay” from him to come on to Scott like that. And under those circumstances, it
felt like cheating. Plain and simple. Maybe it hadn’t felt like that before when he wasn’t actually
aware that he was in love with Scott, but now that he was, actively trying to get close to him felt
wrong.
Tango felt his fingers brush against Scott’s. He pulled his hand away immediately. He saw Scott
look at him for just a split second before his eyes moved to look back ahead, pretending as if he
hadn’t noticed anything. It made Tango’s heart hurt with want.
Not yet. Maybe soon, if things really weren’t too good to be true, but not yet…
“Here it is.”
Tango looked up once he heard Cleo’s voice, the entrance to the cave now staring right at him.
“Jeez, I forgot how big this place was.” Etho commented as he started walking inside. Everyone
else was quick to follow.
“Hello??” Impulse exclaimed. Just as expected, his voice bounced off the wide cave walls in a
slow, repetitive fashion. “Huh, guess it can be pretty loud in here.”
“Grian!” Cleo yelled, the volume of their voice making everyone flinch. “Show your face you
coward!”
No response.
They all walked deeper into the cave, some walking off to look in different directions, some
stopping momentarily to type into their comms, likely demanding Grian to tell them where he was.
It was all really just random wandering from there. In Tango’s case, he went to walk along the side
of one of the cave walls, deciding that for whatever reason circling the perimeter was the most
effective way to search for Grian. Scott, of course, walked beside him the entire time.
Walking this close to the cave’s walls felt strange. For one, Tango could now see from this distance
that there were some cliffs along the sides that ran about halfway up the wall’s length. For another,
he could also hear the sound of some mobs groaning and moving about on the other side of the
stone. From what he could hear clearly, there seemed to be an unusual amount of enderman
spawned just on the other side of the wall. Though there wasn’t much point in digging through it to
find out, was there? Other than those things, nothing out of the ordinary showed up while they
were walking.
—Until Tango spotted something bright and glowing near the far end of the cave. He narrowed his
eyes at it, carefully nudging Scott to come and follow him. He too soon recognized what it was
they were looking at. It was a series of signs all lined up against the side of the wall in a wide row
filled with bright glow squid text.
“Guys?” Tango yelled out, not needing to raise his voice much for everyone to hear. He made a
motion with his arm for the rest of the group to come and follow him.
“What kind of nonsense is this?” Impulse said as he and Bdubs approached the signs. Only when
Cleo and Etho had arrived as well did Tango start actually reading what was on them.
Dear friends, it seems as though you’ve figured out my mystery location. Congratulations!
Tango could have sworn he saw Scott’s eyes roll into the back of his head. He couldn’t say he
blamed him for the exaggerated reaction.
They went to the next sign and kept reading.
But your journey isn’t over quite yet! To find out where it is I’ve truly hidden, you’ll have to solve
this next riddle!
“Oh. My. Goddd!!” Scott groaned, swiping a hand down his face.
Tango saw Cleo throw her arms forward, equally frustrated. “See? We all knew he’d pull
something ridiculous like this!” She started. “This is total bull-“
Cleo never reached the end of her rant. She was cut off swiftly by a very fast, very loud explosion.
The sheer volume of the thing sent a violent, uncomfortable shiver through Tango’s ears and down
his spine. He had no idea where the TNT had even come from, but as the blaze regained his
bearings, he was able to see that it had gone off directly across him by where the first sign was
standing. As such, the person who had taken the most damage from it happened to be the one
who’d shown up here last and was the last of them to start reading the signs.
Etho.
Tango felt his comm buzz. He looked past Cleo, farther down the cave wall over to where Bdubs
was.
—Used to be…
In his place was nothing other than a small pile of items and a very distressed-looking Impulse.
“W- what the hell…?” Tango sputtered, eyes going wide.
Impulse stood there, frozen. “ Bdubs… ”
Before even a few seconds had passed, everyone’s attention was captured once more by loud
snickering coming from above. Tango shot his head up to where the cave wall they were all
huddled up against ended at one of the thin cliffs that dug into the side of the it, the edge of the
ledge just wide enough for a person to stand on. There, he saw none other than Grian, holding a
single piece of powered rail in his hand.
He’d just dropped an entire TNT minecart on top of them and they hadn’t even noticed.
—Because they were all too busy reading the signs.
Tango felt as though he might have been laughing right along with Grian had this happened under
different circumstances.
“GRIAAANNNN!!” Cleo yelled out.
Grian’s snickering turned into hard laughter as he struggled to get out a reply. “I’m sorry—I- I just
couldn’t resist!”
“Resist this you jerk!” Etho yelled, and fired one of the flaming bows that he’d picked up from
Lizzie’s items directly at the avian without hesitation.
Grian, who apparently hadn’t been expecting a violent reaction so immediately, failed to dodge the
arrow as it hit him square in the chest. He made a shocked noise for a second as his body gave off
the illusion of being on fire before the flames went out and he started running away across the
ridge and into one of the many tunnels that lined the cave walls.
“Let’s go!” Scott yelled. No one needed to be told twice. They all started racing after Grian with
great vigor, using materials to build up the side of the wall and onto the same platform their friend
had been standing on. Cleo was the first to make it to the top and didn’t hesitate to start sprinting
down the same tunnel that Grian had disappeared into.
Tango waited at the top for Scott to catch up with him, then continued running in that same
direction with him at his side.
As soon as they made it past the entrance, Tango immediately sensed that something was off. The
entire area was well lit with no mobs around. That wouldn’t have been too odd on its own if Grian
hadn’t also been standing directly at the other end of the tunnel, unmoving as if he were waiting
for them to continue chasing him.
Grian was far away, but not too far for Tango to notice him moving a hand he had raised up against
one of the tunnel walls downward as if he were activating something.
“Wait-!” The realization hit Tango too late however. He knew exactly what kind of trap they’d
fallen into the second he heard the sound of pistons moving. He hadn’t been able to grab Cleo in
time; they were too far ahead, but he was able to grab Scott by the back collar of his shirt, stopping
him mid-run and forcing the both of them to take a step backwards right before the floor opened up
from under them.
Unfortunately, it was too late for Cleo. Tango heard them let out a shocked gasp before
plummeting a short distance downwards into a second floor covered in lava.
Grian only watched on while wearing a small smirk on his face. Tango would have been yelling
curses at him if his attention wasn’t already focused on his ally, who was currently burning to a
crisp. He watched Cleo struggle as he tried to come up with any ideas on what he could do to get
her out of there, but he could think of nothing. By the time Etho and Impulse had made it up the
wall, she was already low on hearts and Etho was barely even given a second to catch his breath
and take in the situation before he vanished right in front of them.
Despite the sudden shock of the situation however, Impulse was still quick to react. Tango watched
as he summoned a water bucket in his hands and proceeded to sprint over to the edge of the trap
and pour all of it into the pit haphazardly. As quickly as they could manage, Cleo had pulled
themself up onto the obsidian that the water had created and proceeded to splash the water
surrounding them all over their body.
Scott had then decided to jump into the pit of now obsidian while at the same time, Tango and
Impulse had loaded their bows and began firing arrows at Grian from down the hall. The avian
hadn’t necessarily tried to run away at that point, he simply tried his best to dodge the shots by
sidestepping repeatedly. They’d both managed to hit him a handful of times with their regular
bows, meanwhile Scott and Cleo were now busy making their way across the new obsidian
flooring of the trap towards Grian. Tango saw them both scale the wall of the pit with ease from
the other end and begin running towards the avian at full speed. Tango made sure to stop firing
arrows so as to not hit either of them, but Scott seemed to have other plans in that respect.
“Cleo! Go!” Scott yelled breathlessly as Tango watched him give his friend a hard shove forward
in Grian’s direction, providing her with the boost she needed to reach him and slice him across the
chest with her sword.
Tango saw the avian’s body flash red and felt his comm buzz once more, clearly, with the
notification of Bigb’s final death plastered on it.
At that point Grian was running again and so were he and Impulse. They saw him reach the end of
the hallway in just a few more steps and turn the corner into what appeared to be a separate
corridor, one different than the last only in that it was void of any lighting at all. Tango had caught
up to Scott and Cleo by then. Cleo had stopped to cram a steak into her mouth and Scott didn’t
seem to want to move on ahead yet with out everyone else, so they’d both stopped their running
momentarily.
Tango reached them just in time to see Cleo swallow heavily and break out her sword again. “He’s
almost dead now. Come on, let’s go!”
They got about one foot down the second corridor before Scott grabbed their arm and stopped
them.
“Wait- Hang on!” He said, hesitating in his movements. “He’s just gonna lure us into another
trap!”
Cleo looked back at him. Understandably, it could have very well been their red life urges—or
really just the fact that Grian had killed off both of their teammates back to back in less than five
minutes—but to Tango, his friend looked more distraught and determined to get back at Grian than
they ever had before.
“One life.” She grit, eyes pleading desperately with Scott to let her go. “He just has one life left!”
Tango could very well understand her frustration, but even then, he could still see how terrible of
an idea it would be to just continue following Grian wherever he tried to lead them.
But Cleo was having none of it. Before anyone could get another word out, she had already yanked
Scott’s hand off her arm and continued to run on, down the dark hallway and into the unknown.
“Cleo! No-!”
Unfortunately for them, the unknown ended up giving off the recognizably loud sound of
exploding TNT. It could have been a pressure plate, a tripwire, or just Grian being a menace in the
dark with a stack of explosives in one hand and a flint and steel in the other, but regardless of how
the trap was set up this time, it still resulted in that same, all too familiar sound of a comm going
off—followed by utter, dead silence.
“Well… shoot.” Impulse spat defeatedly.
‘Well shoot’ didn’t even begin to properly sum up just how pissed off Tango was in that moment.
Forget him though—Scott looked like he was ready to explode.
“—I mean, I kinda wanted to get him back before, but now…” Scott seethed. “Now, I really want
him dead.”
Impulse shook his head. “There’s no way he has more traps after that.”
“Do you really think now’s the time to underestimate him?” Tango countered.
All three of them stared down the dark hallway. Nothing, not even footsteps could be heard coming
from it.
Holding his breath, Tango summoned a torch in his hand and decidedly took the first step forward.
For each step he took, he noticed Scott place down another torch to light up the darkness from
behind them. Both he and Impulse made sure to keep a wary eye out for pressure plates or any
other traps like that. Tango felt the tunnel take a turn and slowly enter a decline once they made
their way past the crater. He made sure to never let his guard down the entire time and before he
knew it they could all see a light at the end of the tunnel again.
There were two things that Tango noticed right away once he reached that tunnel end. For one, he
realized that they’d managed to essentially circle back into the large, central cave they’d first
entered through. The second thing, was that there were now a various amount of endermen in boats
staring straight at him from the other end of the cave.
Years of instinct built up by constantly being killed and attacked by the mobs had the blaze
immediately snapping his head around, eyes trained on the ground so as to not look at the creatures
for any longer. Scott and Impulse were quick to do the same, all three of them now with their backs
flat against the side of the tunnel, bodies semi-hidden and eyes trained on literally anything else.
“You saw them too, right?” Tango blurted out quickly.
“Yes.” Scott responded. “Did you see Grian too? He was standing in the middle of them all and
wearing a pumpkin on his head.”
The blaze hadn’t caught that at first glance, but he figured it made sense. It was easy to assume that
Grian had kept all those mobs hidden behind a portion of the cave wall that he’d kept up all this
time. Now all he needed to do to reveal the endermen he’d apparently collected was to mine it
down quickly. No wonder he’d heard so many mob noises coming from the walls when they’d first
arrived.
The short silence between them was suddenly broken by the sound of Grian’s obnoxious laughter.
“What’s wrong guys?” Tango heard his friend snicker. “I’m right here! Come get me!”
It went without saying that the second any of them tried to rush him, they’d make eye contact with
the endermen once more in the process and be bombarded by the mobs once Grian released them
from their boats.
“You’re clever dude.” Tango admitted, fists clenched at his sides. “But you’re also the worst.”
More snickering could be heard from the other end of the cave.
“I’m gonna go out on a limb here and assume neither of you have a pumpkin?” Impulse whispered.
Neither he, nor Scott answered.
“Crap.”
Tango looked at Impulse. “If you still have that bucket on you, maybe we could throw some water
down to keep them from coming after us?”
Impulse’s eyes brightened at the idea. He looked to be in the process of taking his bucket out
before pausing the motion as if having realized something.
“I only have the one bucket to share between the three of us.” The other said, looking uncertain of
himself. “Fighting while trying to move around in water is gonna be beyond frustrating and even
more difficult if we did it with such a limited amount of space. We’d never have the upper hand
with Grian at all.”
Tango slumped his shoulders. Impulse had a point. It wouldn’t be such a bad defense if it was just
the endermen they had to deal with, but then how the heck were they suppose to get to Grian if
they were stuck fighting in one spot?
For a second, Tango contemplated just rushing him all at the same time. Maybe they could use
some of the remaining TNT they had somehow? Shoot… but how would that even work—?
The blaze’s thoughts were halted when he heard Impulse let out a loud, half-hearted sigh, peeling
himself from the wall and casually making his way past him and Scott as if neither Grian, nor the
endermen scared him at all anymore.
“Well, it’s been fun.” He said to them, shrugging.
Tango had no idea what Impulse was playing at. He was half a second away from yelling at him to
keep his head down and get back behind the wall, but his friend was talking again before he could.
“For what it’s worth,” He said, shooting Tango a soft smile. “I’m not going to the void after this,
and I’ll be silently judging you both if you fail to kill him.”
Tango’s eyes went wide. “Impulse-??”
The man was now running off into the open space of the cave, head down and sword in hand.
Tango wasn’t sure if Impulse had some sort of plan or if he was just acting crazy, but he didn’t
want him doing whatever this was alone. The blaze put a foot forward, ready to run after him
before being stopped by a hand on his arm.
“Don’t!”
Tango looked back. Scott had a surprisingly strong grip on him that only grew harder to escape as
he pulled the blaze into him, practically smothering him as he tried to break free.
“You remember that joke you made earlier about sacrificing yourself?”
Tango didn’t answer, but his struggling did subside.
“—I think Impulse kept that idea a little too close to heart…”
Tango shot his head back around to look at Impulse once more. He hadn’t even gotten to the
halfway point between them and Grian before Grian shot an arrow at him from between two
endermen and managed to hit Impulse right in his center. In a movement that seemed to have been
completely controlled by instinct and habit, Impulse looked up to see where the arrow had come
from, and in doing so, locked eyes with the densely packed group of mobs ahead of him. In less
than a heartbeat, Impulse had angered nearly all of Grian’s mobs. Meanwhile, Grian had worked
fast in freeing each of them from their boats.
Every enderman went after Impulse, and yet he never stopped running. Tango watched as he
placed what little water he had left down on the ground as a defense and tried to fight them all off
from the puddle. But Grian still had the upper hand and continued to fire arrows at Impulse, only
knocking his health down lower and lower while he was stuck with nowhere to go. After he had
taken down two endermen and it began to look as though he could fight no more, Impulse pulled
out one final item he had: a stack of TNT. Which to Grian’s surprise, he placed down right in front
of him and immediately lit it with zero regard for his own life.
By then Tango had stopped his struggling completely—if only out of sheer shock—and let out a
surprised yelp as he watched his friend blow himself up along with any endermen that had been
trying to attack him previously.
Grian however, didn’t have the mind of a mob, and as such, managed to step back just in time to
avoid the majority of the explosion.
With Impulse gone, any endermen that had been attacking him either moved or teleported away
from the area, scattering themselves about in the large perimeter of the cave now that their chosen
enemy was gone and there were no longer any boats to hold them hostage. They sought out areas
with dimmer lighting and the like, which meant that they were no longer as much of a threat as
they were before when they’d all been in one condensed area.
At this, Tango finally snapped out of his trance and wrestled his way out of Scott’s grip, though
Scott seemed to have purposefully loosened it by now anyway. He joined him in charging at Grian
one final time. Now, they were the one’s who had the advantage.
Grian made a small effort to run away, but in his utter exhaustion, he didn’t get very far. Tango
ended up reaching him first and used his sword to cut Grian’s pumpkin clean off his head. The
avian tried to hit him back, but his attempted swing was instead met with Scott’s sword as he
stepped in front of Tango, taking the brunt of the hit. Diamond clanged against diamond and
echoes of grunts and yells bounced off the cave walls as the three of them engaged in a messy, tired
fight.
In the end, it was Tango who knocked Grian’s sword out of his hand. He watched it for a moment
as it slid across the ground, far out of reach from the other before turning back around to stab Grian
one more time, knocking him to the ground.
Outnumbered, low on hearts, and out of tricks up his sleeve, Grian let out one final gasp and
slumped completely onto the ground, wordlessly admitting defeat once and for all.
Behind him, Tango could hear Scott let out his own sigh of relief as they both slowly approached
their friend. The blaze made sure to still hold his sword down towards the other’s neck, leaving the
threatening presence of a final blow to loom over him.
“I’m not gonna lie,” Scott spoke up, the exhaustion in his voice being poorly hidden. “All those
traps you set up? Probably the most badass play I’ve ever seen anyone follow through with in any
of these games.”
Despite all the chaos this man had just put them through, Scott’s comment still managed to pull a
small smirk out of Tango.
“I just have one question though.” Scott continued. He took one more step forward, the both of
them now staring Grian down side by side.
“—Why?”
There was a moment of silence where they were both wondering the same thing. It was a question
that made Tango curious enough to keep Grian alive for just a short while longer. even if such an
act was still risky, he just couldn’t deny how badly he wanted to know.
But all that passed between the three of them after that was silence.
Grian didn’t say anything.
So, Scott pressed on, his tone gradually growing more frustrated. “Why isolate yourself? Why
deprive yourself of sleep trying to grind for wither sculls? Why lead us here only to kill us? Why
set up this entire game in the first place??”
Tango could have sworn he heard the avian’s breath hitch, but he ignored it.
Grian finally opened his mouth to speak.
“I just-“ He let out a sigh and placed one of his hands lightly over his mouth. “—I just thought you
all needed a common enemy…”
Tango turned to look at Scott in silent question; Scott had apparently done the same thing—though
neither of them could provide any answers.
“What are you even talking about?” Scott continued to question him, less upset now and more
confused.
Grian said nothing.
“Hey-!”
“Scott.” The blaze cut him off, holding a steady hand up at his partner. “If he hasn’t opened up to
anyone in six months, he’s probably not gonna do it now.”
He looked back at Grian, who was now anxiously biting his lip, staring at them both intently as if
silently pleading with them to just get this over with.
His friend had been acting so confident and cocky only a minute ago. So why did he look so scared
and anxious now?
Scott frowned, but didn’t try to resist the idea any further. “Fine.” He said. “Let’s just… kill him
and avenge everyone for now, okay?”
Tango tilted his head. What did Scott mean by “for now?” The game was practically over. They
were the last players left. What did he even expect to happen next?
Then, in an instance, Tango remembered once again what he was suppose to be doing…
“Here.” He said, shoving his own sword into Scott’s hand. “You do it.”
Scott took the sword reluctantly, raising an eyebrow at him. “Me? I hardly did anything!” He
argued. “You should be the one to kill him-
Tango had had enough of this.
“Just do this for me Scott!” Tango yelled balling his fists up. “Please!”
The words had come out much louder than he’d meant them to, causing Scott to flinch and step
back slightly. Tango felt guilty over having caused that reaction. Of course he did. But he’d wasted
so much time just working up the nerve to confess to Scott and now the game was almost over and
—
The blaze took a deep breath in, his next words were quieter, and much more direct.
“Scott,” He breathed. “I need to tell you something important… and I need you to be completely
sane when you hear it.”
Scott blinked at him.
“I-“
He cut himself off.
Tango knew the other had every right to be confused by those words, to question what they meant.
And yet, Scott instead snapped his mouth shut and nodded slowly as if the odd and out of the blue
request needed no further explaining.
“Okay.” He said quietly.
Scott let out a low breath. He turned his head back over to where Grian was still lying and raised
the sword up to him once more.
“Goodbye, Grian.”
Grian hadn’t questioned their brief, but strange exchange either. Instead, he simply nodded his head
and accepted his fate. “Good game.”
Tango met Scott’s eyes once more before he looked away.
Scott brought the sword down on Grian’s head.
Grian was slain by Smajor1995
Grian vanished into thin air, only a small amount of items dropping in his place.
Just as he’d expected, Tango noticed Scott’s eyes widen with a sudden clarity that he hadn’t had
with him for at least half the day.
Scott lowered the sword he was holding and slowly turned to face him.
Everyone else in this world was gone. There was nothing left to distract them.
It was just the two of them now…
Chapter End Notes
**Another small announcement**
I hate to say this now of all times, but… I’m going to be traveling a lot over the next
two weeks and on top of that, I am starting a new semester at my school. So the next
chapter might take longer to come out than it usually does. There may also be a chance
that some of the updates in the future may also be delayed by a few more days than
usual. In some part, this is because I just need some extra time to transition and move
back on to my campus, but I also just… REALLY don’t want to rush these next few
chapters in particular, if you get what I’m saying. Idk if I’d call this a hiatus per-say
since I don’t think it’ll take more than two weeks to get the next chapter out, I’m just
saying that it’ll likely be out later than usual, same with the next few chapters to come,
that’s all.
Thank you so much for the support and I hope to be back with the next update as soon
as possible!
Scott - Red
Jimmy - X
Tango - Red
Cleo - X
Bdubs - X
Etho - X
Grian - X
Scar - X
Bigb - X
Ren - X
Martyn - X
Impulse - X
Pearl - X
Joel - X
Lizzie - X
Want
Chapter Summary
Scott is afraid to leave the game and face Jimmy again. Tango tries to get him to open
up. They both finally stop caring.
Chapter Notes
“How are you feeling?”
Scott blinked a few times. He was slow to respond, as he had been for most of Tango’s questions
so far during this game. “Are you okay?” “Do you hate me?” “Scott…?” It was all so repetitive
and it only hurt more to know just how much Tango cared about him. It was certainly more than
Scott cared for himself, at least in that moment.
But how was he feeling? How was he feeling?? First and foremost, Scott was feeling terrified. This
was it now, wasn’t it? Grian was dead; everyone else was dead. There was practically no more
stalling that could be done. All that was left to do now was decide who was dying first and who
second—not that that outcome ultimately mattered much to Scott anyway. He’d already won Last
Life, practically tied in Double Life too. He’d gotten his fill of victories and he didn’t need another
one. That wasn’t what he was worried about.
Along with the terror, came the brief, but strong feeling of panic. It was a similar experience to
when Scott had first assumed Tango to have been the one to burn down their base. At first, Scott
nearly ran away again due to the realization that Tango could kill either of them at any moment and
end this thing. But of course, that mentality was only briefly lived out as he came to his senses once
more. Tango wouldn’t do that. Not without asking him first.
Scott was facing Tango completely now, sword still in hand but resting at his side. With each of
those negative feelings having passed, only one remained.
A feeling of hopelessness—for both of them.
But of course, Scott kept all of that to himself, simply choosing to answer his teammate with what
was probably a very unconvincing “Fine.”
In some part, it was the truth. Tango had clearly only asked the question in reference to his killing
urges and Scott did in fact, feel just fine in that context, his head now as clear as it had been that
morning.
That morning…
Scott swallowed a heavy lump in his throat.
“—So,” Tango started talking again, practically finishing Scott’s line of thinking for him with what
he said next. “About what I said earlier-“
“Could we walk around for a bit?” Scott was speaking again before either of them could
comprehend it. He wasn’t entirely sure where he was intending to go, but two things were still
certain to him. One: he needed to put off the conversation of leaving this game for as long as
possible. And two: he could hardly breath as it was inside this cave and they could honestly both
use some fresh air at this point.
Thankfully, while still fairly off-put, Tango didn’t seem to object to the suggestion. “Sure?”
Scott took off before the other could think it over in his head for any longer, not giving the still-
remaining pile of Grian’s belongings even a second glance and marching up the rocky hill inside
the cave back towards where they came in from. From behind him, he could briefly hear Tango
make some quiet noise of confusion at his urgency, but ultimately, the blaze’s footsteps still
followed his own in their haste.
Only once they were outside did Scott finally gain some sense of what he was doing. The sun was
now in the midst of setting, though both of them knew that it wouldn’t be dark for a good while
longer.
“Let’s head back to our base.” Scott called back. He still hadn’t stopped his walking for anything.
“Scott…?”
“Just for now.” He added, trying to reassure the other. “I mean, it’s not like we have to end this
immediately, right?”
Scott didn’t dare turn around to see whether or not Tango agreed with that sentiment. His decision
to continue stalling would have been the same regardless, though he’d much rather have continued
to do it while at least remaining ignorant as to how it affected Tango’s opinion of him.
Just as predicted, he heard more hesitant, but still continuous footsteps following him from behind.
Scott continued walking away from the cave and in the direction of their burnt down base. “It’d at
least be nice to say goodbye to everything first.” He said to Tango once they were about halfway
there. That statement was still at least half-true to him, but of course, it wasn’t the main reason why
he wanted to keep from leaving this world so soon.
Tango had worked his way up to his side by now, walking steadily next to him. Scott could sense
his presence there but made no attempt to look up at him. All the same, Tango had stopped trying
to talk to him in any immediate way or ask what exactly they were even doing at this point. Scott
could only guess that Tango’s patience came from a place of understanding—if not for what it was
Scott had confessed to him last night, then at least for the fact that they practically had all the time
they could want to do whatever they wanted to now. Perhaps some of their friends were still
waiting as ghosts, but they still had each other to keep themselves occupied. They hadn’t been
waiting very long anyway. A little more time spent here wouldn’t bore them to death…
—But then, what would? How much time here was too much? At what point would Tango finally
decide to end things on his own terms? How long could they both go before their red urges took
over once more? Before an accident happened and one of them died simply by falling off a cliff, or
into lava, or by being slain by a mob? And if nothing else happened, then at what point would
Grian finally decide to call things off himself and end them both with a lightning strike?
It was only a matter of time. Scott couldn’t put off the future forever. He knew this, and yet…
“I liked building this with you.”
Scott shot his head up at the sound of Tango’s voice. He’d been so lost in his own thoughts that he
hadn’t realized they’d made it back to their base already. All Scott could see ahead of him was a
pile of charred wood and some still standing, but heavily burnt planks. One difference he did notice
however, was the small amount of plants and vegetation now starting to grow over some of the
build and work its way up the pile. There were no new flowers yet, but the sight was still oddly
beautiful. It took his mind off of his worries for just a moment—before Tango continued what he
was saying.
“We should make a new one when we get back.”
Scott nearly sputtered. He finally found a motive to look up at him, the other’s gaze being calm and
collected while his face held a soft, genuine smile. It should have put Scott at ease, but oh god why
did he have to have phrased it like that?
He didn’t want to go back. That had been his one goal since Jimmy had died. If he was still here,
then at least he could pretend that him and Jimmy could still be together, that him and Tango
wouldn’t forget all about him again. Maybe Jimmy really did love him back, but that fact in and of
itself was still terrifying. How had that been affecting his and Tango’s relationship all this time?
How had it been hurting it? How had it been hurting either of them?? Were all three of them just
doomed to be unhappy from the very start? Was there ever even a solution to this at all??
Scott couldn’t fathom a life without Jimmy, but at the same time, he’d put off living a life without
Tango for as long as he possibly could because there was no telling what would happen for all of
them once this game was over. Would Jimmy just stick with Tango and continue longing for him
too forever? Would that continue to hurt their relationship until neither of them could stand it
anymore? Or would Jimmy, against all odds, actually decide to run back to him?
Scott could have laughed at that idea. One week ago that would have been a dream come true for
him. One week ago he would have been happy to hear that Jimmy still loved him. One week ago
he would have accepted Jimmy back with open arms. But then… where would that leave Tango?
They were all doomed. He was doomed. Scott had doomed himself the instance he started caring
for Tango, started wanting him in his life in the same way he did Jimmy. No, even before then,
when he’d made Jimmy chose between them. That was when it had all gone wrong. All of this was
his own fault.
Had this been what it had felt like for Jimmy after Double Life when he’d forced him to make that
impossible choice? Had he cursed himself to feel the exact same way forever? Perhaps such a fate
would be fitting for him, but that still didn’t keep Scott from hating it.
“I want to head over to the Skyscraper.” Scott turned his head away from Tango and began walking
again, outright neglecting any potential response he might have given to Tango’s initial statement.
“Never been on the roof before. I bet we could see the whole server from up there.”
Scott continued his walk, but all too quickly, he was able to notice the lack of footsteps following
behind him.
With absolute dread, Scott turned his head around to see Tango still standing exactly where he was
before, a very noticeable frown now present on his face. To Scott, he seemed sad, but more than
that, he looked as though he was disappointed in him.
“You can’t put things off forever, you know.” Tango spoke warily.
Scott swallowed again, turning is head to the ground. “I know.”
There was no follow-up with that statement, because there didn’t need to be. He knew. They both
did, each of them being well aware of exactly what he was trying to do here, yet only one of them
actively acknowledging it.
Scott prayed that Tango would drop the subject, if only for a few moments longer, but such a thing
was never going to happen, not now.
“If I hurt you so badly that you stopped caring about me—then I can accept that.” Tango went on.
Scott felt his heart sink to his stomach. “—But I need you to actually tell me that, Scott.”
Tango took a large step forward. All of his compliance had vanished, his patience gone. “I need
you to talk to me!”
—And maybe that made two of them, because after that, all Scott could do was slump his
shoulders and give up the act, but not without the tremendous feelings of fear and dread still
weighing him down.
“What do you want me to say?”
Right away, Scott knew he shouldn’t have said that. He should have tried to tell Tango he was
wrong in his assumptions—because no, he hadn’t hurt him to the point where he wanted him to
leave. If anything, Scott almost wished that had been the case, as that would have made things so
much easier for him. If he could just hate Tango again, go back feeling as though he were a curse
on his life rather than the kind, amazing, understanding blessing that he’d come to see him as…
No, he could never go back to those feelings. They were dead. Gone. He could never hate Tango
the way that he once did ever again.
So where did that leave them now? Was this it? Were they finally going to have this conversation?
Scott could hardly fathom what Tango might possibly hope to gain out of talking to him about this.
Obviously, getting to go home was one of those things, but then what? What plan could he
possibly have in mind that would make them all happy in the end? What could Tango possibly
expect him to say that would fix all of this?
What did he want him to say?
Tango took another step forward, and all in an instance, his entire demeanor shifted. His brows
furrowed and he covered his mouth gently with his hand. He looked scared now. Of what, Scott
did not know.
“I need you to say…”
He removed his hand, pulling his head up and looking Scott directly in the eyes.
“—that you still want me.”
Scott blinked.
What…?
Tango hadn’t even followed that up with anything. He only stared at Scott, anxiously biting his lip
as he waited for a reply.
What confused Scott the most wasn’t Tango’s exact question per say, or how he was behaving at
the moment—it was how he’d phrased it. He hadn’t said “I need you to say that you want me here”
or “I need you to say that you still want me to stay”—it was just…
“I need you to want me…”

Tango had said it quieter the second time, barely a whisper under his breath as if he were saying it
more to himself now. But Scott still heard it. He still heard him loud and clear, and comprehending
those words all but made his world stop.
Tango wanted him.
He needed him to want him back.
Was Tango trying to tell him that—he…?
“I need to tell you something important… and I need you to be completely sane when you hear it.”
Scott scanned over the blaze’s face once more, his previous sternness now tainted with a roaring
blush on his cheeks. It was clear to Scott that Tango was trying his best to pretend that the blush
wasn’t there, though that hadn’t worked to hide any of it at all.
“I guess you could say… I have two thirds of an idea. —A crazy idea.”
Scott had to reel his head back for a moment. Nothing in the world could have possibly prepared
him for that statement. His mind went over every instance in which Tango had been close to him.
All of the hand holding, the leaning into each other, holding each other like their world would
shatter if they let go.
And then there was the more personal moments. Talking each other down, talking until they both
fell asleep, talking about Jimmy, building together, understanding each other… The way Tango
had never judged him for any of his emotions after he’d gotten to know him. The way he had never
desired anything else from Tango other than his genuine self. All the stories they’d told about
Double Life and Third Life. What love meant to them both, how it felt as though no one other than
Jimmy could understand and accept him for who he was like Tango did.
Scott remembered the process of forgiving him. How strained and difficult it was. How he first
thought it impossible, then unlikely, then unwanted—because if he forgave Tango, then that meant
that in his heart, he’d let Jimmy go completely. He’d accepted that he was never going to be with
him again, and all the same, he’d accepted that what Tango did was necessary and justified, if only
because it ended up making Jimmy happier than he could have been had they stayed together.
And then, he found out that none of that was true. And why would it be? Jimmy had told him as
much, hadn’t he? He’d cried it out straight to his face that he couldn’t choose between the two of
them. And Scott had been stupid enough to ignore him.
And just as worse, Scott found out that he couldn’t let Tango go either. Not physically, not in his
mind, not in his heart.
And now they were here. And Tango was telling him that he wanted him. And was asking him to
reciprocate that desire. And…
No. He couldn’t be asking for that. He couldn’t. He loved Jimmy, they both did, but—
But, would such an idea… really be so crazy?
Tango was still waiting for Scott to respond. He was biting his lip. He looked to be on the verge of
shattering if he didn’t say something soon.
Scott felt his heart skip a beat.
—No. It felt more like his heart was on fire.
Both of them. Both of them! He wanted both of them!! And Tango—he wanted them too!
“Of course I do!” Scott choked the words out a little too quickly, but he didn’t care how crazy he
might have sounded. Tango had asked him a question and now he needed him to know just how
badly he wanted him too. “Tango—do you think anything I said to you last night has changed since
then??” Scott continued, voicing his thoughts aloud. He needed to let Tango to know what he
thought of him, but the process of forming his feelings into words… it was easier said than done.
These feelings were new, disorienting, terrifying, but Scott needed them to be known!
Unfortunately, those first words out of his mouth hadn’t seemed to bring Tango any proper sense
of confirmation, as Scott noticed the blaze still looking anxious and defeated.
“I don’t know what to think with you.” Tango shook his head. He was back to being frustrated.
“You won’t talk to me. You’re not letting me talk to you!”
Scott stood there and looked at him for a moment. He was right, he hadn’t been letting Tango talk
to him. All he’d done this whole time was stall his words, put off his future—their future.
No more.
Much to Tango’s apparent surprise, Scott began walking towards him. He kept his eyes on the
blaze and didn’t stop for anything. Not until he closed the gap between them completely.
He didn’t need words for this.
Scott wasted no time wrapping his arms around the blaze, desperate to experience that feeling of
comfort they’d had when they’d held each other that morning. Only this time, there was no
pretending going on between them, of feigned ignorance of their situation, no denying their
feelings, just pure and utter acceptance— want.
He could hear Tango let out a surprised huff at the motion, but the blaze didn’t make any attempt
to move away, and slowly, hesitantly, he soon came to wrap his own arm’s around Scott as well.
They hugged. It was quiet. And when Scott finally found the strength to speak up again, he did.
“You really mean that?” Scott muttered close to Tango’s shoulder. “That you still want me?”
He felt Tango run a nervous hand up his back. “Of course I do.”
Scott swallowed. “And- and Jimmy…?”
“Him too.”
He sighed with relief.
Tango held him closer. His body felt warm and Scott could see how pink his ears still were. “Both
of you. All of us.”
Scott took a deep breath in. He let one of his arms fall off the blaze momentarily so as to get a
better look at it. He noticed he was shaking, not just his arm, but the rest of his body too. This
whole experience—it was nerve-wracking, but also thrilling. Yet Scott still had to wonder, did
either of them even truly understand what the other was saying? Did he understand it himself?
Were they finally, finally, on the same page?
Scott pulled back just enough to look his partner in the eyes again, though both of their hands still
remained on each other, faces closer than they’d ever been.
“I’m not like you and Jimmy.” Scott breathed anxiously. “I- there’s no click for me or anything
like that. I don’t usually figure it out all at once…”
For as much of a romantic as he was, love was still a challenging matter for Scott. Even now, in
this moment, he still felt unsure. But maybe that was okay? Scott loved differently, and there didn’t
have to be anything wrong with that. Maybe even Tango could figure that out just from the few
words he’d given him. He was falling. He was. He had been this entire time. It just took him a little
longer to fully accept and recognize those feelings. It was the same with Tango as it was with
Jimmy. It was a long and slow process figuring out that he needed Jimmy in his life, but he’d
gotten there. In time, he’d gotten there.
But here he was now, those feelings for Jimmy still blooming and vibrant as ever, all while having
repeated that same process all over again with Tango. And to some degree, it scared Scott how
despite the time he’d spent with Tango having felt like a lifetime’s worth of experiences, he still
managed to feel this way about him sooner than he did with Jimmy. Did Tango know that? Could
he possibly know what he was trying to tell him now?
“I understand.” Tango whispered back, his unwavering confirmation all but making Scott melt. Of
course he understood. He was Tango. What had he been so afraid of?
Scott smiled with relief. Tango smiled back. He looked exhausted, but at the same time, happy.
He pulled himself back into Tango’s shoulder, resting his chin there as he allowed the rest of his
body and mind to relax just a little more. “You’ve done this before.” Scott continued. “You have
experience.”
Scott thought back to what Tango had told him about his previous relationship. It may not have
been a proper one and maybe it wasn’t even close to actual love, but it was still the best Scott had
to go off of. At least, for this situation.
“So tell me,” He continued, voice starting to shake. “If I started feeling this way about you… S-
sooner than I did for—him -“
Scott felt Tango grip him tighter, pulling a hand up to gently brush over his head. “Don’t even start
with that.” Tango spoke the words carefully, but firmly. “Just because it took you longer to feel
that way about Jimmy doesn’t mean you love him less. That’s not how that works.”
Scott had hardly assumed as much, but still, it was a great relief to hear it from Tango of all people.
“Besides, you still held on to those feelings for this long, haven’t you?”
Scott hummed in agreement. “No matter how hard I tried to get rid of them…” He whispered.
“They would never go away.”
Despite all the pain those feelings had brought him, all the dark thoughts and sleepless nights,
some part of him still felt glad that they’d remained there, still as strong as they were the day that
he’d lost Jimmy.
“Of course they didn’t. They were never going to.” Tango said back. It was as if the blaze knew
with certainty that had he been in Scott’s shoes, he would have never gotten over Jimmy either.
And Scott could absolutely believe it.
“Because he’s Jimmy.” Tango continued. “And you’re you.”
Scott felt a small tug at one of his shoulders. He attempted no resistance as he let his partner’s hand
guide him to where he wanted him to be, back in front of Tango, looking him in his poppy red eyes.
Tango gently pressed their foreheads together. Scott let his eyes fall halfway closed. He felt at
peace. All of this just felt so right, almost perfect, if only Jimmy had been there with them.
The blaze then held a hand up to his cheek. Scott leaned into it.
“—And I love both of you.”
That… well, that just did it for him. That just pushed Scott right over the edge.
Tango didn’t just want him, he loved him. He loved both him and Jimmy. Scott felt he might be in
a dream, because all this felt too perfect to him. But it wasn’t. Thank god it wasn’t.
All at once, the current contact between him and Tango wasn’t enough for him. He needed more.
He needed Tango so badly and he wanted to hold him like an actual partner would.
Scott slipped his own hand up to the blaze’s face, mirroring his action while caressing him gently.
Tango leaned in affectionately and slowly closed his eyes. He took the opportunity to pull his own
head back slightly, only to move it forward again, past the side of Tango’s. There, he let his lips
ghost over his partner’s cheek, ear, neck… Close enough for him to feel his breathing, but just
barely avoiding kissing territory by a hair’s length. Scott could feel Tango flinch from under him,
but he didn’t pull away.
“Scott. ” He heard Tango breath out, quiet, restrained desperation in his voice. “Ghosts—They’re
watching…”
The thought almost made Scott laugh. Of course they were; they were the only players left, so it
was a certainty at this point. What was funny however, was that for once, he didn’t care. Neither of
them should.
“Let them.” Scott whispered into the side of Tango’s neck.
He wasn’t sure if it was what he said that made Tango react the way that he did, but it was as if a
thread had suddenly snapped. All of a sudden the blaze seemed to have taken his advice and
stopped caring completely.
Scott felt both of Tango’s hands rush downward to grip his hips, his hold on him firm but not
uncomfortable. Scott found himself pulling his head back in surprise, only to be swiftly thrusted up
against one of the trees next to them with Tango’s breath now directly in his ear.
“Do you know what you’ve been doing to me this past week?” The blaze whispered sweetly.
“What you’re doing to me now?”
Despite how calm Tango’s tone was, to Scott, the words themselves felt frenzied, possessive even.
And so fucking hot.
Scott leaned in even closer, both of their stomachs now lay flat against the other’s, lips and faces so
close they were practically inhaling each other.
“Fuck, Scott—“
Tango’s pupils were now fully blown out. Scott moved his thumb up to trace a line along his lower
lip, admiring how soft it felt.
Tango closed his eyes and shook his head, all of the fire in him now draining out. The motion
looked forced, like it took him every bit of strength he had left not to take things any further. He
took Scott’s hand in his own and pulled it away from his face. “Jimmy- I- we cant…”
Scott sighed. “I know.” He said. He really did know what Tango was talking about and had it not
been for his own thin, but still present layer of restraint holding him back, he would have been on
top of Tango twenty seconds ago, kissing the air straight out of his lungs. But he was still sensible
enough to understand that this was Jimmy’s boyfriend he was touching and despite what he knew
about him now, how Jimmy still loved him back, he also knew that he didn’t want to risk hurting
Jimmy by giving in to such desires without talking to him about all this first.
As badly as he wanted to…
“I want you so badly.” Scott breathed, any filter he might have had between his thoughts and words
had vanished completely.
“I want you too.” Tango sighed. He’d never let go of Scott’s hand and continued to hold it tenderly.
“But for now, I should just settle with saying… That I love you.”
Scott continued to lean in to the other. He got the feeling that Tango could repeat those words a
million times and he would still never get tired of hearing them.
“I don’t need you to say it back.” Tango added. “I just need you to know it.”
Scott felt stupid for still having any doubts about it now, but he did. It was simply in his nature—
but that was okay. If things went right, he knew he’d manage to say it back with time and once he
was sure enough in his feelings, he would let both Tango and Jimmy know it every single day.
“This is insane…” Scott said. He looked up at Tango, laughing slightly. “I think I owe Jimmy a
huge apology. Because the more time I spent with you, the more I was able to see what he saw.”
One week. Had it really been that long? It felt like so much longer.
Tango breathed out a laugh along with him. “You took the words right out of my mouth.”
Scott’s eyes fell back to Tango’s lips.
That wasn’t the only thing he wanted to do with his mouth…
“You’re not who I thought you were.”
“Neither are you.”
Scott frowned.
He could agree that he hadn’t exactly been acting like himself during these past few months. Be
that because of his bad coping habits or his time spent without Jimmy, there was no denying that
he was different now. At least in some parts. And maybe Tango did like that side of him, but…
would Jimmy?
“Do-“ Scott tried to start a sentence but had his breathing hitch before he could. He felt Tango
graze a hand down a sensitive area on his lower back that made him shudder pleasantly.
God, had it really been so long since he’d been touched like this?
Scott gripped the blaze’s shoulder, swallowing hard and trying again. “Do you think it can still
work—with us?”
Tango looked up at him, confused.
“When- when I’m like this?” Scott elaborated, gesturing to himself with his free hand. This only
seemed to puzzle Tango more, as if he was unable to understand what could possibly be wrong
about being like “this.”
“Scott…” Tango sighed, seeming to realize what he was getting at. “He still loves you.”
“Maybe for now.” Scott said, shaking his head. “Maybe for a little while, before we start talking
again and he realizes how damaged I am.”
“There’s nothing wrong with you.” Tango’s expression had contorted into what Scott could only
describe as disgust. Perhaps he didn’t take kindly to the way Scott was describing himself, as if he
were damaged goods rather than a person. And maybe he shouldn’t have phrased it like that, but
still, the words were accurate to how he felt.
Tango frowned. He moved his hand up to cup Scott’s cheek again. “But the way you feel about
yourself now… That’s nothing but my own fault.”
Scott smiled sadly. “I was always like this.” He argued. “I didn’t show it as often back then, but I
was.”
And it was true, he did still act rash and angry and there were many times when he couldn’t sleep
for the life of him, even during the period where he still had Jimmy with him. It was better then, of
course, and maybe it had been Tango’s stepping in that further accentuated those traits, but he was
in no way responsible for them being there in the first place.
“And did Jimmy still love you then?”
Scott hesitated.
It took no effort in remembering all the instances in which Jimmy would hold him until he stopped
crying, drag him away from work and back to bed, shower him in love and attention and affection
whenever he was having a bad day…
Even now, even while he was still in this game, Jimmy had only ever wanted to be near him, spend
time with him, talk to him—and so did he.
Even before then, as friends or while they were getting to know each other again back in Third
Life, he had always been there for him.
“…Yes.” Scott breathed.
Tango smiled. “Of course he did.”
Of course he did.
“Did you really mean it when you said you liked all of me?” Scott asked.
“I did. I still do.”
Scott could have cried then. He really hadn’t thought for a second before meeting Tango that he
would ever find another person who not only accepted all parts of him, but loved them all the
same. That someone he once considered the absolute bane of his existence would come to be
known as his friend, companion, and maybe something so much more.
“What are we?” Scott asked quietly. He hadn’t expected any kind of solid answer to that question.
Not too long ago, Tango had actually been the one asking him that. But he still wanted to hear his
thoughts on all this, what he truly wanted out of this relationship.
“I don’t know what I am to you.” Tango said back. “But whatever you need me to be, I’ll do
everything I can to be it.”
Scott let his arms fall back around Tango’s back. He was content with that answer. If they were
lucky, all three of them would hopefully have however much time they needed to figure this all out
with each other.
If they were lucky…
“I need you to promise me something.”
Tango blinked slowly. “Anything.”
“Promise me that this won’t be the last time I speak to you.” Scott looked at the other in earnest.
“That when we leave this game and the world that comes after, whichever server we go to next…
all three of us will be there.”
There wasn’t much that either of them could guarantee when it came to what would happen next,
but this… knowing that they could at least all be together once more after they left the game, even
if only for a little while—it was enough for him.
“I promise.” Tango replied. His answer held steadfast, like he’d never been more determined to
follow through with anything else in his life.
Scott locked their gazes one last time.
“I’m not leaving you.”
It was a relief to hear all that. Tango wasn’t leaving, at least not yet.
And neither was he.

“Okay.” Scott breathed. “You’ve convinced me.”
As much as it pained him, he let his loving hold on Tango fall apart, safe for a single hand that
kept them connected. He took a step back and began walking again, guiding them both in a
different direction.
“Scott?” Tango asked him. He sounded confused, but showed no hesitance in following along.
“Where are we going?”
“Home.”
Tango didn’t ask any further questions. Maybe it was Scott’s own lack of urgency that made the
blaze feel so settled, but regardless, he kept calm the entire short walk away from their base.
It had only been a few minutes before they both reached a very familiar clearing. Scarce trees
surrounded a deep ravine, and all at once, Scott could see it on Tango’s face that he had at least
some vague idea of what he had planned. Though even still, it might not have been entirely what
he’d expected.
Scott didn’t want to kill Tango and if he knew Tango as well as he thought he did, then odds were,
Tango probably didn’t want to kill him either, even if it were through means that didn’t directly
involve harming the other. It was as simple as that.
Thanks to their earlier run in with Grian and Scar however, Scott now knew that it was possible to
have two teammates die at the same time. Well, maybe not the exact same time, but close enough
that a great amount of damage would still trigger the death of the opposite player, even if that
player had experienced their own phantom death within the same instance. With all that in mind,
Scott felt it best to leave this all up to chance. He had a feeling that Tango would agree.
Scott walked them both to the edge of the ravine, positioning himself only a footstep away from
falling off while having turned around to face Tango.
“What are you doing?” Tango finally asked. He hadn’t seemed afraid in the slightest, just curious.
Scott smiled. “I’m leaving this game.” He wrapped both of his arms back around Tango, locking
their bodies close together. “—And I’m taking you with me.”
Even at that, Tango made no move to leave. One look in his eyes told Scott all he needed to know.
They were both content with this outcome. They had both accepted it as the only way to end this.
“Are you scared?” Tango asked calmly.
“Terrified.” Scott laughed. “But that has nothing to do with the cliff.”
He still had no idea how things would possibly unfold for them on the other side. Would Jimmy be
open to this idea? Would they try something new? How would they even go about explaining
things to Jimmy in the first place? On the off chance he happened to wait out the rest of the game
as a ghost spectating them, would they even have to explain anything at all?
It was all so uncertain, and that scared Scott to no ends. But Tango had made him a promise and he
knew the blaze was intent on keeping it. He promised that they’d all be together on the other side,
if only for as long as it took the both of them to recount everything that happened to Jimmy—
they’d all be there. All three of them. And if that were the case then, well, at least he wouldn’t
have to face all this alone.
“Look at me.”
Scott met Tango’s eyes again, now only seconds away from decidedly ending this once and for all.
His pupils hadn’t shrunk in the slightest, still gazing at him, still full of love.
“I see you.”
He could stare into them forever.
“I see you…”
He took one step backwards with Tango and instantly felt the rush of wind against his back for a
few peaceful seconds before everything went black.
Tango fell from a high place
Smajor1995 died
Smajor1995 fell from a high place
Tango died
Chapter End Notes
YALL HOW ARE WE FUCKING FEELING??
Scott - X
Jimmy - X
Tango - X
Cleo - X
Bdubs - X
Etho - X
Grian - X
Scar - X
Bigb - X
Ren - X
Martyn - X
Impulse - X
Pearl - X
Joel - X
Lizzie - X
History Repeats Itself
Chapter Summary
The game has ended and everyone spawns into the meetup world. None of the other
players react the way Scott had expected them to, least of all Jimmy.
Chapter Notes
Heyo, just wanted to let everyone know that this story is still fairly far from over. I
never intended for it to end right after Trust Life (the game) ended and I still don’t
intend that now. I have yet to have completed drafting up each of the remaining
chapters, but when I do, there will be a proper chapter count rather than a question
mark, so that’ll be pretty indicative of how long the rest of this is gonna be. Just so
everyone’s aware :)
Well, that hadn’t taken nearly as long as Scott thought it would. And it angered him to no end.
Scott took his hands off the sides of his head, ears still ringing from the sound of the sudden
explosion. His head swerved to where Grian was, the smug bastard already laughing his ass off
over the three people he’d just killed.
Scott took a large step forward and shoved him against one of the hill’s ridges. “You’re a
monster!” Scott screamed at Grian. The way the avian couldn’t seem to force himself to stop
giggling only pissed him off more. “You’re chaos incarnate! Jimmy just died once already! And
now you’ve made him die twice??”
There was a certain shit-eating look to Grian’s face that just made Scott want to deck him over the
head. The feeling was uncalled for, he knew it was. This was just a game and none of this was
meant to be taken seriously. And yet, he just couldn’t accept that Jimmy had sunk to red so
quickly. His second death wasn’t suppose to happen like this. Not this quickly—not within 24
hours of the last one!
He thought he’d get more time with him, thought they could continue the peaceful routine they had
going for just a while longer, but now, thanks to Grian, it looked like that wasn’t going to be the
case. And it made Scott seethe.
Had he always gotten this upset over the people he cared about? Or was this reaction something
that was sparked solely because of Jimmy? It was a curious question, one that Scott couldn’t quite
figure out the answer to thanks to the game’s memory block. But he still got the feeling that this
wasn’t an ordinary occurrence for him. Not in the slightest.
Scott scoffed and turned heel, trying to let off steam as he walked away. He felt his anger starting
to cool the more distant Grian’s laughter became, though he still couldn’t bring himself to let this
go too easily.
Whatever. For now, he needed to focus on finding Jimmy—again. He’d probably be back at his
base, seeing as they’d spent last night together again.
Just like real husbands would.
Scott almost tripped at the thought. He slapped a hand to his blushing lower face, quickly looking
around him to see if anyone was there, as stupid as it may have been to assume that even if
someone was nearby, they’d be capable of reading his mind and figuring out what he’d thought of
just then. Irrational fears aside, once he’d calmed himself, he let out a sigh and began walking once
more.
“This is stupid.” Scott muttered to himself. “It’s a bit. Just a stupid joke.”
He kept walking towards Jimmy, towards home, and as his thoughts started to even out again,
Scott smiled to himself.
As if he’d let anyone take his “husband” away that easily.
There were three very important things that Scott had forgotten to take into account before he’d
stepped off that ledge. Three things that, under normal circumstances, had little to do with anything
—and yet, as of this moment, had practically everything to do with what happened next.
The first thing, was that the meetup world that came after the game was designed in such a way
that allowed it to automatically spawn all the players into it in a circular formation, just like how
they’d spawned into the previous world at the beginning of the game.
The second thing was that the placement of players across the circle was random. The circle didn’t
go from first person out to last, alphabetical, or anything else, because it didn’t need to. There was
simply no point to it. Although that still didn’t outlaw any chance that the players might still spawn
in that way at random.
The third and most damming thing was that, when not in a bed, players always respawned in the
same position they were in when they died. In some instances in the past, this had led to some
funny outcomes. Some people would land on their faces after being stopped mid-fall. Some would
stumble forward if they died while in the middle of running, etc. But in Scott’s case, he had died
falling while latching himself onto Tango, a hold that neither of them ever let go of the entire way
down.
It was this action, combined with the respawn mechanics of the meetup world, combined with the
completely random chance that they both happened to spawn right next to each other in the circle,
that was responsible for what happened next.
Scott woke up on his stomach, but he hadn’t felt any hard ground or grass underneath him. He let
out a groan, pulling his head up slowly so as to get a look at where he was, only to open his eyes to
see fiery red ones staring back at him. Scott nearly jolted back before he realized who they must
have belonged to. His eyes darted downward, then back up, now with a clear view of Tango’s face.
He was still lying on top of him, and the blaze still had his arms wrapped around his back.
Scott felt his cheeks flush. The position they were in was practically the same one they’d fallen
into during the earlier days of the game when they were running away from Grian’s base. Only this
time, it felt much more intimate.
And yet, just like before, Tango seemed as though he couldn’t help but smile at their predicament.
“Hey.” The blaze spoke quietly, as if this were the most casual thing in the world for them. And
Scott had to admit that in some way, he was right. Being this close to each other really wasn’t
anything new for them at this point, was it?
“Hey.” Scott smiled back. His eye’s never left Tango’s. He could notice now from this distance
that the other’s pupils were just a small tint darker than they were when they were in the game. A
slightly different shade of red that only a person who had stared fondly at those eyes a hundred
times before would be able to notice. It was a small detail, but Scott took some pride in being able
to spot it right away. That was nothing to say of Tango’s still-enlarged pupils of course. Anyone
standing even ten feet away would probably be able to notice how different those appeared.
Tango snorted out a small laugh and Scott realized just then that he’d been staring at the other for
what was probably an absurd amount of seconds. Although Tango hadn’t tried to move or push
him off, he only blushed brighter, a sweet blush that went beautifully with his laugh. A second
later, and Scott was doing the same, the both of them chuckling lightly at themselves and what they
were doing. Maybe there wasn’t much to laugh at at all, but still, they were both here; they were
both alive and happy and still with each other—and wasn’t that reason enough to smile?
Their respawn had been a little disorienting, they always were. So Scott didn’t think much of it
when Tango leaned his head forward, pressing their foreheads together once more. Scott paid it no
mind when their laughter died down and all they felt capable of doing now was staring into each
other’s eyes contently. For a moment, they said nothing, eyes half lidded and cheeks still flushed.
For a moment, they’d both completely forgotten where they were.
“What. The actual. HECK?”
Scott could feel Tango’s entire body flinch from under him; he had no doubt he’d done the same.
They both turned their heads to the side, looking for where they’d heard Bdubs’ voice come from.
But it wasn’t Bdubs who Scott had locked eyes with first. In fact, he didn’t lock eyes with anyone.
There were just too many people to keep track of.
Everyone. Every single one of the players were all standing in different spots of the circle they’d
spawned into. Some had nervous smiles, some looked confused, many looked surprised, but all
were watching.
Scott blinked.
“Uh—“ He tried to form words, but it suddenly felt impossible. He was blushing even harder now,
but for a much different reason.
“Hey…?” Tango said slowly, now addressing their friends but only managing to get one word out
himself.
They all stared at each other for one more second.
Then, chaos.
“When did this happen??” Pearl shouted, making frantic gesturing motions between the both of
them.
“Are you both in love with each other?” Bigb asked. “Since when??”
Everyone was walking towards them now. Meanwhile, Scott was busy trying to untangle himself
from Tango. He heard Impulse bud in for just a second, a nervous tone in his voice. “Uh, guys—
maybe let’s give them some space-?”
No one seemed to be paying attention to him.
“Oh my god this explains so much actually…” Cleo groaned, head in her hands.
“I knew it. I knew it!” Martyn said.
Scott had finally managed to roll off of Tango and sit up straight, the other doing the same. His
eyes scanned the crowd, looking for Jimmy but instead they fell on Grian, who easily stood out as
one of the only people not approaching them or asking them questions. He could see the avian
staring at the palms of his hands in disbelief. Eyes wide in a thousand yard stare.
“They had all their memories this time.” Scott barely heard Grian mutter to himself over the noise
everyone else was making. “This- this wasn’t suppose to happen…”
Scott felt a tinge of sympathy at those words. As much as he wanted to unpack all of that and talk
to his friend about all this, there was someone else he needed to find first. He stood up, head
spinning on his shoulders as he searched for Jimmy. But there where so many people, all of them
moving around so quickly…
“Tango-? I- what-??”
Scott heard another voice to his right. Lizzie.
She looked as confused as anyone else here was. Scott couldn’t blame her for that. He already
knew with certainty that she’d become a ghost. From the looks of it, most people had. Maybe most
of them were already aware during the game that him and Tango had started a sort of friendship at
some point, but knowing that only to get blind-sighted by Tango all of a sudden confessing his love
to him was a big jump, to say the least. Anyone who started watching them any time after Joel’s
death was in for a huge surprise indeed.
Scott was now looking between her and Tango. The blaze had managed to stand back upright at
some point, his eyes wide and hands held up defensively as Lizzie approached him.
“But—you and Jimmy!” She sputtered, eyes darting to Scott in confusion ever so subtly. “You’re
both still together, aren’t you?? You-“
“Tango?”
Both he and Tango froze. Scott pulled his head up.
Jimmy.
He could just barely see the upper part of his head peering over from behind Martyn’s shoulder.
Scott nearly lost his footing again. He could have sprinted over to him if their circumstances had
allowed it, but instead, Martyn moved out of the way and Jimmy came to them. Before Scott knew
it, he could see him in full view again for the first time in five days, yellow canary wings,
comforting brown eyes and all. And Scott would have eagerly continued to close the gap between
them and embrace him happily…
—If not for the look on his face.
Jimmy’s eyes were wide and concerned. He lowered one of his hands down from his forehead,
likely trying to have nursed the small headache he might have gotten from the respawn.
He approached them. Everyone else quieted down slightly, most of them looking at him now, as if
wondering how he would react to all this as well. In an instant they were face to face again, the
canary looking between him and Tango anxiously.
The next three words out of his mouth were confused, nervous…
—And they told Scott everything he needed to know about what choice Jimmy had made after he
died.
“What’s going on?”
Scott exchanged a quick glance with Tango again. He knew they were both thinking the exact
same thing.
Void.
Jimmy had chosen to go to the void.
It shouldn’t have been a surprising revelation for him. He’d figured as much. Jimmy had never
been one to stick around as a ghost, not when he was always the first to die. He would have had to
spend days—maybe even a full week in that state, unable to do anything but watch. Perhaps he
would have chosen to stay as a ghost had he lasted a decent amount of time, but that of course had
never been the case.
But none of that mattered now, in this moment. Jimmy had made his choice and now him and
Tango had to figure out how to talk to him. Just gazing at Jimmy made Scott start to panic. One
look and he could already tell that Jimmy was confused, worried—was he… hurt too? Why was he
looking at them like that? Oh god, how much of that initial display had he seen? What the heck
was going on in his head right now??
Scott could couldn’t even string together an explanation. What was he suppose to say here? Where
should he even start??
While he was busy panicking, Tango seemed to have taken initiative and stepped forward. He
could see the blaze hold up a calm hand, now speaking to Jimmy directly.
“Jimmy-“ He started, but he didn’t get the chance to finish.
Jimmy took a step backwards.
“Your eyes…” He said. And fucking hell, Scott could hear the pain in his voice so clearly it hurt.
“Tango- why-? Why are they…?”
Scott looked between him and Tango, the blaze’s pupils still as large as they were when they’d
fallen off that cliff staring into each other’s eyes. He wasn’t entirely sure why Jimmy was asking
about them, but that didn’t matter right now. Scott knew he must have heard what everyone else
had been asking. “What the hell?” “Are you both in love?”—Jimmy could have easily pieced
together enough already, and that was still saying nothing of how they were both positioned when
they’d spawned in.
Just like him, Tango seemed to be at a loss for words, his eyes widening and breathing picking up.
Scott put a hand to his shoulder and tried to step in this time. Carefully, he reached out for Jimmy’s
hand using his other one. “Jimmy, I can explain-“
The canary’s eyes went wide.
He yanked his hand away before Scott could even touch it.
“I- I don’t understand…”
Scott could hear the other’s breathing quicken just as well, though his was more frantic and
panicked. Scott’s heart hurt for him. Clearly, he was confused, of course he was. From his
perspective, both he and Tango had been at each other’s throats ever since Grian had announced
the teams. And now, in an instance, they were doing… whatever this was. Now they’d spawned in
wrapped in each other’s arms looking as though they’d just got done kissing or something and it
made absolutely zero sense. For goodness sake, Scott was still trying to wrap his head around it
himself—of course Jimmy was confused!
“That’s okay.” Scott spoke calmly, trying not to feel hurt over the fact that Jimmy had just yanked
his hand away as if he were a threat to his safety. “You just came out of the void; I wouldn’t expect
you to, but if you could just listen-“
Scott took another step forward.
Jimmy took two more back.
Now, it was Tango who stepped it, having seemingly regained his voice.
“Angel, wait-“
He reached out, but Jimmy continued backing away all the same.
“I- I can’t do this again.” He sputtered out, running an agitated hand through his hair.
Scott tilted his head. “Jimmy-?”
“I can’t do this again!!” Jimmy cried out.
All eyes were on him now as he reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a small, rectangular
device. His comm.
Scott looked at Tango again, the feeling of mutual fear hitting them both like a ton of bricks.
“Nonono wait—!” Tango said, both of them continuing to move forward to try and catch up with
him.
“Jimmy- wait! Don’t go!” Scott was nearly crying again. He hadn’t expected this at all. Was
Jimmy confused? Scared? Did he think Tango had just flat out cheated on him? Was his state of
disorientation and confusion making him relive what had happened here six months prior? Were
each of those things true??
Scott watched as Jimmy started typing into his comm, tears welling at the corners of his eyes and
ran ahead of Tango—calmness be dammed—in one final attempt to get through to him.
“Jimmy—just let us explain!” He yelled. “We can talk about this! Let’s just stay here and talk
about this!”
He saw Jimmy look up for just a second, as if second guessing his decision one last time.
But ultimately, his choice remained final. He pressed a finger to something on the screen, and just
as Scott began to reach for him again, he vanished.
“Petal—!!”
Scott’s hand grasped on to nothing.
SolidarityGaming left the game
For a moment, everything was silent again. Scott slowly lowered his arm, resting it at his side as he
finally took in what had just happened.
Jimmy had left him… before he could even begin to explain himself…
Oh.
So that was how that felt…
Scott felt his knees grow weak and suddenly, for just a second, he was falling again, until he felt
two arms wrap back around him and catch him in their hold. Scott looked up. He could see a
distraught-looking Tango holding him in his grasp.
“Scott.” The blaze said, a very noticeable shake to his voice. “We’re going after him, right?”
Scott felt some clarity come back to him again.
That was right. Jimmy must have gone back to Empires. Where else would he have gone? And if
he could let Tango in as a guest, then they’d both be able to go find him again.
This didn’t have to be the end for them like it was last time. They could all still be together again,
just like Tango had promised.
Scott stood up slowly, talking out his own comm and scrolling through the server list until he
found the one he wanted.
“Of course we are.” He said, determination in his tone. He looked up at Tango and reached out his
hand. Tango took it without hesitation, nodding to him wordlessly, yet looking equally determined.
He looked around one last time. Everyone seemed to be staring at them in shock, or maybe silent
confusion? Grian in particular looked like he had something to say, but was keeping it to himself.
No matter. Either way, it didn’t change Scott’s stance on this. He felt somewhat bad leaving so
early again, but this was undeniably more important. Who knew? Maybe they’d just end up
throwing a party in Pearl’s honor instead, just like what should have happened last time.
With that final thought, Scott looked back at Tango, finger hovering over his intended button, and
pressed it.
Smajor1995 left the game
Tango left the game
Chapter End Notes
Before I go hide away under my mattress from what will maybe be an angry mob
coming for my head—I just wanted to say that next chapter will be Jimmy pov!
Finally!!
Also, congrats to anyone who predicted that Jimmy really WAS in the void the entire
time!
Works inspired by this Everything’s
one Burning by Wither_Bloom, Fireflies and stardust by
Anarchyatthesupermarket, singed by Vintage_Faerie, I Could Even Learn
How To Love (Like You) by angelicmoonrise, He's not real (or is he?) by
AndIcarusFell, Vintage_Faerie, A Poppy Not There by AndIcarusFell
Please drop by the archive and comment to let the author know if you enjoyed their work!

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Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/41212521.

Scott’s health reached zero.

His world went dark.

The next upcoming life game is sure to be an awkward one…

Edit: Rating is also probably gonna go up to E eventually. Just a heads up

Surely, Pearl did as well.

Scott’s health reached zero.

His world went dark.

He opened his eyes.

The players get their memories back. Drama ensues.

That didn’t make it any easier.

At least, that’s what it was suppose to be for.

And neither did he.

Scott looked down.

They were still holding hands.

Scott was about ready to punch him.

“Scott,” Jimmy bud in. “I think we should talk about this.”

Scott turned to look at Jimmy, his eyes softening just a bit.

“Calmly.” Jimmy finished.

Scott grit his teeth.

That does it.

“We just need to have a calm talk about this-“

“Scott, I know things are very confusing right now-“

He wasn’t giving up just yet.

“You know I can’t do that.” Jimmy replied.

Scott’s heart sunk.

“Why not??” He yelled, voice shaking as he did.

His world shattered.

“No…” Scott trembled. He gripped Jimmy’s hand even tighter.

“What-?” Jimmy started.

“Then you weren’t in love, Jimmy. You were delusional.”

“Choose.” Scott demanded coldly.

“Make a choice right now.”

Scott cut him off once more.

“You don’t get to talk here.” He hissed.

He turned back to Jimmy.

“I can’t.” He sobbed, now full on crying.

Scott let go, turned heel and began walking away.

“Scott, please- I don’t want to loose anyone here-“

“Scott please, don’t leave me-“

If anything else was said after that, it fell on deaf ears.

Scott pressed the logout button with his thumb.

Smajor1995 left the game

This tradition, was the betting pool.

Scott recalled the events of the last game.

It was Martyn. Martyn had made money.

“Join in on this next game.” Grian had asked.

“Uh, how about no?”

“Dude, you owe me.”

Scott had thought his decision was absolute. Until—

It was a shaky arrangement. But it worked.

Scott checked the time on the kitchen clock.

Tango joined the game

Scott checked his comm one last time.

The game begins. Grian explains the rules.

His heart ached. He tried bringing his attention back to Grian.

“This season, of course, has a bit of a twist to it.”

“During this game, all players will be part of a group of three…”

Instead, he might have described the look in his eyes as hopeful.

Scott opened his mouth to speak.

And then, in an instant, everything sped up again.

“Can we log out?”