#ethub

“I thought you were asleep. Sorry.”

“Nope, ’m awake.”

“Sorry I wake you up.”

“Hmm.”

Silence.

“Are you not gonna explain?”

Half way to the door, Etho stops dead in his track. Bdubs sits up, waiting for a reply. The clock on the wall shows quarter to three in the morning. Bdubs frowns. 

“Etho?” He tries again.

Etho can be very stubborn if he wants to. Judging by how stiff Etho looks, Bdubs knows it won’t be easy to get a straight answer out of the man. He usually let these things slide; he isn’t really the kind of person to press the matter. However, ten minutes before three in the morning, groggy and grumpy that he is, he decides that Etho standing in the middle of his bedroom at this time of the night isn’t something he could let slide, at all.

“Etho.”

“What?” Etho replies, voice light as if they were exchanging greetings on the sidewalk.

“Why are you here in the middle of the freakin’ night?”

“Just, visiting, you know.”

Still the same tone, light as a feather. Bdubs rubs his eyes; he’s too tired for this. “Etho, you are not getting away with this!”

After a few seconds of tense silence, Etho sighs, subtly, and turns to face Bdubs. “I didn't steal your wool, Bdubs, before you-”

“Goodness sake, stop lying! I’m not dumb.”

Etho then stares at Bdubs. The look dark and thoughtful, but when Etho blinks, it disappears. Bdubs wonders if he’s seeing things; after all, it is almost three in the morning.

“I just...I want to. How do you explain something that you just want to, Bdubs?”

Etho is still using the same tone, light and playful. However, Bdubs has known Etho for a long time, and he knows how to pick out the unnatural, forced lift in Etho’s voice.

“What- what does that even mean?” Bdubs huffs, a little incredulous. He starts rubbing his eyes again, the tiredness actually catching up this time. Etho isn’t making any sense- he’s playing with words again. That sentence just doesn’t make sense, does it? What does “explain something that you just want” even-

Oh.

Etho must have seen the shift in his expression. He sounds hesitant when he says: “Do you really want the explanation?”

Does he? Bdubs is a little bit freaked out right now. What would that mean, if he insist that Etho explain it? What would happen after? Is he reading this right? Is he dreaming? Surely this can’t be real?

“...No. I am not having this conversation with you right now.” Bdubs utters quietly, a hint of tremor in his voice, “Not now. Not EVER, actually.” He adds as an afterthought.

Etho nods and turns, “See you tomorrow, Bdubs. Sleep well.”

“Hey hang on, we haven’t finish yet!”

Etho gives Bdubs a questioning look. Bdubs almost flinches, but he catches himself in time. “Don’t show up in my bedroom in the middle of the night, okay?”

“If I do, you wouldn’t really know, though. You can’t make me promise that.”

“I can and I will. Promise me.”

“I can’t make promises that I can’t keep.”

“Etho, promise me!”

Etho stares at Bdubs in silence yet again. Bdubs resists the urge to shift around, staring back at Etho as unwavering as he could.

“Either we agree to ignore what happened tonight, or we pretend that nothing happened at all. That’s my compromise.”

“Etho-” Bdubs starts.

“Good night, Bdubs.” Etho walks out and silently shuts the door behind him.

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