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

Chapter Fifteen

BDubs yawned as he opened his eyes slowly, rubbing his eyes, which were still sore from crying. He had fallen asleep a couple of minutes after he's been basically tossed into the cell and the cell door had been locked. Presumably the Floran hybrid was exhausted (you know, from all the crying).

He shifted uncomfortably on the stone floor, wincing and lightly rubbing the bruises on his arm from where he'd been grabbed. I have... no idea how I fell asleep in here, this is awful.

For a moment, BDubs couldn't remember what had happened, and he had a brief moment of confusion as to why he was in the cell. And then the memories of the shouting and the accusing glares and the panicked screaming came washing over him. Oh. Right. That.

He wasn't sure how to feel. The brunette knew he should have felt... betrayed? Sad, maybe?

BDubs trusted Etho. He had finally been coming round to the idea that yeah, some humans were okay actually (he had maybe, just a tiny bit tried to imagine what it would be like if he got married to Etho- what the wedding would be like, who they'd invite, what it would be like being married to his boyfriend- but he would never admit that to anyone).

And now Etho was convinced that BDubs had done something horrible. Admittedly, amidst all of the confusion BDubs hadn't quite registered whatever crime he was being accused of (or if he had registered it, he couldn't remember what it was now), but he wasn't at all sure why Etho thought he did whatever crime it was.

He could only feel as though something had gone terribly wrong. Etho wouldn't suddenly switch to not trusting him in half a second. Something wasn't right here. Something was off.

He was almost certain the queen (or Commander Symmetry, at the very least) had something to do with it, but while he was locked up in a cell he couldn't do much to prove it and nobody would believe him if he did- BDubs was just a hybrid, after all.

So no, he wasn't mad at Etho. He just was worried that whoever tricked him might lead him down some sort of bad path.

The boy was dragged out of his thoughts by a voice from the other side of the bars. "Oh, man, you look sad. You're the one who was screaming, right? Cleo's, uh, friend? What are you doing in here? You don't seem like the, uh, evil criminal type."

BDubs glanced up to see a man with long brown hair, blue eyes and weird blue glasses. That's Cleo's friend, right? Joe? One of the guards maybe? I can't remember. "I'm... I'm not." He admitted quietly. "I was framed, I think."

Joe frowned. "Oh- that's not too good, that is- unfortunate. I- want to say your name starts with a 'B'?" He said slowly.

"Yep. BDubs." The Floran hybrid said with an awkward laugh, getting to his feet and adjusting the handcuffs digging into his wrists. "Joe, right? Cleo mentioned how you- got her out of... the cells." He added hopefully.

"Oh, yeah. I did do that! She wasn't being framed by someone... probably higher up? Presumably the queen?" The blue-eyed man muttered (well, he was hardly a man- he looked as if he had practically just turned 18, so BDubs might as well have referred to him as a boy).

"Presumably. Somebody's told Prince Etho that I committed some type of crime." The Floran hybrid said with a laugh, grateful for the fact that someone was being friendly to him. "Not sure who."

"Prooobably Commander Symmetry." Joe shuddered. "She's always freaked me out a little bit. And she is way too anti-hybrid. Like, a lot more so than most people. I'm not." He added hastily, causing BDubs to giggle slightly despite how tired and awful he felt.

"Yeah. Probably. Hey, are guards meant to say bad things about other members of palace staff?" He said with another laugh, moving slightly closer to the bars and glancing at the key attached to Joe's belt.

"Not... particularly, but I find it makes befriending prisoners easier." Joe said with a grin.

"Are you meant to be befriending prisoners?" BDubs asked wryly.

"Again, not exactly, but most of the prisoners here haven't actually committed a crime. They just disagreed with the queen in some way. Or Commander Symmetry. I do kind of feel bad for Commander Symmetry though- she hero-worships the queen, she'd do anything for her approval. And I mean anything." Joe said with a slight frown, his gaze drifting to the handcuffs that felt like they were biting into BDubs' wrists. "She still sucks, though."

"Yeah. Yeah, she does." The Floran hybrid had only spoken to Commander Symmetry on a few separate occasions, but when he had she'd been incredibly rude to him simply because he was a hybrid.

"Well... hopefully you'll be getting out of here soon if you're actually innocent for whatever you did!" The blue-eyed man said brightly. "Although if the queen's framing you, it might take a while, but eh. She'll probably die in a couple years, she's old." BDubs laughed again.

"You really shouldn't be saying that, should you?" When Joe shook his head, the Floran hybrid continued. "So are you a guard down here?" He was pretty sure Joe was a guard (why would he be down here otherwise?) but he wanted to double check.

"Yep. Somehow. I'd prefer to be like- a poet or a bard or something? But my parents wnated me to do this, so..." The taller of the two shrugged. "Here I am. At least I can make it slightly more bearable for the people who've been wrongly imprisoned though, so it's kinda worth it?"

"Honourable intentions." BDubs glanced sideways at a shout from further down in the dungeons. "Presuming that's for you?"

"Yep. Uh- bye." Joe muttered, running towards the shout as BDubs stared after him.

He wasn't sure how long he'd have to be in the dungeons but at least there was a friendly face.

Woooooo BDubs is

In the dungeons L bozo

But also Joe is there so 👍

Comments and votes are appreciated! <3 :]

Sorry for any errors abejjwkdkwodjwk