#but... yeah.

But Scott hesitates, even as he introduces the idea. "Maybe later on, though." He says, after Martyn tells him how much time he has left. "I thought you were lower."

Martyn's not about to argue - it would seem wrong for a lot of reasons. Either way, before he can respond, one of the Bad Boys dies for the third time in as many minutes.

"Maybe I should play this game with one of them, actually." Scott jokes, smirking. "Maybe they need it more."

A few seconds later, yet another one of them dies.

It's Jimmy, this time.

---

"Do you wanna kill me, Scar?" Scott asks, and less than ten seconds later, he's dead. It's not even down to enthusiasm on Scar's part - Scott is the one urging him to get it done quickly, before the Boogeyman might be a problem.

It catches Martyn off guard.

It's not really his place to say anything, though.

It's not as if he even reacted quickly enough to do anything about it, despite all his practice recently trying to be Scott's right hand- or, um- that is- his bodyguard.

But Scar is an ally. He doesn't begrudge Scar the time, not when it was as close to freely given as is possible, here.

While he's still trying to process what just happened, Scott walks over and rejoins the conversation as though nothing has changed at all.

---

"That was my thing with Jimmy." Says Scott, stretching out the ache that comes with dying from a fall. "He said he was on half an hour so I let him get a kill."

"Oh." Says Martyn.

Scott deflects a bit, afterwards - now he has no ties, and he felt guilty about how many times he's killed Jimmy - but... ok. After the whole birthday party incident last week, that one... that one does sting a little.

That doesn't make it any of his business, though.

The canary dies in the end, anyway.

---

After that, they have the same amount of time. They both agree it wouldn't make any sense to do it now.

Not now that they're equal.

---

This thing is, Scott wasn't there after Martyn killed him, before.

Of course he wasn't. Why would he be?

But- he wasn't there. He didn't see how red the water was, because none of it stuck, afterwards.

When Martyn got out of the water, his hands were clean.

The current carried it all away, as though nothing ever happened.

There were no bloody stains and splatters on the floor and the weapon and the clothes they wore.

But- Well.

It's not that he's glad he doesn't have to kill Scott. He would, if he was asked. He wouldn't mind. Why would he mind? Hey, he's the one who'd be getting time for it.

(...Maybe he's a little glad.)

And it's not that he's bitter that Scott gave out his time so freely to other people. They needed it more than he did. Why would it bother him? That's just how it worked out.

(...)

(Maybe he's a little bitter.)

It's just- if he had. If he had done it, there's a part of him that would have done it with a sort of fierce pride he doesn't fully understand, and there's a part of him that would have died along with Scott, and he doesn't know which of those parts is stronger and he thinks maybe, actually, they're the same. He thinks that maybe there's no way to pick them apart into two separate things if he still wants to be left with someone who's recognisable as him, afterwards.

That's all.

---

He comes back to the base later, alone.

Someone's blown up the small bridge that connected his hourglass with the main island that Scott built.

Most likely it was Joel, before he died.

It's getting to the point, now, where people stop bothering to repair things, because there's no point.