Just The Two Of Us- A Hermitcraft/Ethubs Fantasy AU

Chapter Six

Etho blinked open his eyes with a huff, squinting at the window. Oh, it is very much still dark outside- why do I keep waking up so early?

He paused, thinking for a moment and reaching for a splint to light a candle. He then reached under his pillow for his... journal? Diary? The prince wasn't quite sure what to call it. Etho sat up, placing his journal (he'd decided to settle on that term for now) on the bed before looking around for a moment.

He carefully grabbed a quill and some ink before sitting back on the bed, dipping the quill in the ink, opening the journal and beginning to write.

'Hello! It's me. I appear to have woken up incredibly early (again) so... I'm writing in this.

Writing by candlelight, mind you, which is not incredibly easy to do.

I don't really have much to write about from today if I'm being honest (because I just woke up), so I'm just going to sort of retell the events of the last few days.

Mother has an assistant now, apparently (I pity him. Imagine being stuck with my mother every day. Poor thing). He's a vampire with black hair and an incredibly large moustache. I think his name is Mumbo or something. I'm not incredibly sure, if I'm being honest.

He doesn't talk much, he just kind of... watches. He only speaks when spoken to (so he's perfect for working with Mother, I suppose- she hates it when people speak out of turn) and he's very efficient at his job, according to Mother. BDubs didn't really know much about him, just that he was good with redstone and was friends with one of the hybrids currently imprisoned in the dungeons (a parrot hybrid who shot one of the squires- a boy called Cub- in the shoulder with a bow and arrow).

I've been going for walks in the gardens with BDubs almost every day now, which is quite nice- he has a lot to say about plants and flowers, and it's fascinating. Although the way the flowers in the gardens are flourishing often reminds BDubs of the poor state of the flower in my room, which somewhat inevitably leads to more lectures on how I need to take care of plants better.

Speaking of BDubs... I'm still not sure whether he considers me a friend or not. He still makes sarcastic responses to a lot of things that I say (although I'm starting to think that may just be his personality and sense of humour) but he isn't... mean anymore. He laughs at my jokes, he has normal conversations with me, and he's made me a bunch of flower crowns, which is cool.

I mean, I consider him to be my friend, he's very cool (especially considering that I was raised to believe that all hybrids were good for nothing murderers- BDubs is not good-for-nothing or a murderer, thank you very much, mother dearest) and he's funny, and it's adorable when he goes on and on about plants.

I don't want him to hate me, but I think he does just a little bit (which he has every right to).

I'm gonna try and get back to sleep now.

Bye.'

——

Etho drew to a halt on his walk down the corridor and glanced out of the window with a slightly surprised expression. What on earth is he doing?

He could see BDubs sat in the grass with a bored expression, leaning against the wall that surrounded the palace gardens. He was continually wrapping a vine around his hand before unwrapping it again, repeating the movement over and over. An array of different flowers- a few that Etho could name were alliums, pink lilies, poppies and oxeye daisies- had appeared in the grass surrounding the boy.

Etho quietly made his way towards the staircase that lead down to the entrance of the palace gardens, pausing slightly as he noticed two people on the other side of the hallway.

One was a boy close to Etho's own age with messy dark brown hair, scars across his face and neck, as well as having dark green eyes- one of the new squires, Scar, if he wasn't mistaken.

Stood next to Scar was a boy maybe a year or two older than Etho. He had messy dark brown hair, what appeared to be dark blue eyes that were hidden behind a pair of sunglasses. He had dark brown (almost-black, a much darker shade than his hair) wolf ears poking out of his hair, and the wolf tail that was swishing back and forth in an almost angry way was the same colour.

He was also glaring at Etho fiercely. Oh great, another hybrid that hates me, fantastic. Maybe BDubs knows him and can let him know that actually I'm not a terrible person. The prince thought, waving awkwardly at the two as he walked past them.

As soon as he walked out into the gardens, BDubs looked up, a small smile forming on his face (from what Etho could see). "Oh- Etho! Hi."

Etho walked over to him, sitting next to the Floran hybrid and smiling back even though BDubs couldn't see his smile. "Hey. What are you doing?" He added curiously.

"Uhhhhh- not really sure, to be honest. I am just- incredibly bored." BDubs said with a huff. "You need to give me more work!" He added with a joking laugh, elbowing Etho playfully. Oh- that's the first time he's made physical contact with me! Cool, cool, cool, not- panicking at all, nnnope.

Etho cleared his throat awkwardly, laughing. Why am I so awkward right now, I swear to- "Well, that can be arranged." He joked lamely, rolling his eyes. "Seriously though- you look incredibly bored, what are you doing? That's a lot of flowers."

BDubs shrugged, winding the vine around his hand again. "I'm just bored, like I said before. And flowers make me happy, so why not make more of them?" He said with a laugh, resting his head on Etho's shoulder with a yawn. "And tired. Tired as well as bored." Oh my god, oh my god, he is very much- lying on my shoulder, why am I freaking out-

"Why are you tired?" Etho asked with a slightly concerned frown, biting back a yawn of his own.

"Stayed up late." BDubs said nonchalantly.

"Oh- why? You need to get some sleep, BDubs." Etho said with a concerned expression.

"Says you. You look like you haven't slept in days!" BDubs protested, sitting up, much to Etho's silent protests.

"Well I couldn't sleep. That's different. You didn't even try to sleep!" Etho said with a laugh.

"Still..." BDubs trailed off, grinning and muttering something that sounded like 'hypocrite' under his breath.

Did I copy and paste the description of Ren from Chapter One (with some slight tweaking) because I'm lazy? Yes. Yes I did :)