Iskall laughs, their hand instinctively twitching, causing nail polish to streak down below their cuticle. "No way! You'd have left me for dead, man," they protest with a giggle.

Etho takes Iskall's hand into his own to restabilize it. Dampening a cotton pad with acetone, he runs it over the stained skin to clean it up. "Give me more credit than that," he says, "I'd have tried to save you. You'd do the same for me, right?"

"Heroic," Iskall says, "but probably not."

Etho huffs a laugh. "Yeah, you're right, you wouldn't. Maybe I wouldn't save you either then."

Iskall smiles and shakes their head. "I don't know, maybe you're still right in a way though. I probably would've done better with you there."

"How so?" Etho asks. He lowers Iskall's hand back down to the table, and moves on to the last nail.

"I almost feel like you're my good luck charm sometimes," Iskall explains, "Even when I don't do good, you do!"

Etho hums thoughtfully. "So what you're saying is we should run co-op again?"

"I'm always saying we should run co-op again."

The corners of Etho's eyes crease, indicative of a smile beneath his mask. "Fair point." He caps the bottle of nail polish, looking over his work.

"Are they done?" Iskall asks.

"Yep. You like them?"

Iskall raises their hands off the table so they can admire the fresh coat of color. It's an automatic improvement to the chipped black polish they'd previously had on for months.

"...Stress does them better."

Etho laughs, "hey, what?"

Iskall giggles in turn. "I'm messing with you. It was nice of you to offer, and they look pretty great!"

"I don't know if you are messing with me!" Etho adds with another laugh. "Stress probably does do them better, I don't do them often."

"Well you can keep practicing on me," Iskall offers. "I think they look good."

"Good," says Etho.

Iskall admires their nails for a moment longer before finally getting up. "So how about that co-op? You up for it?" they ask.