Big Book Of Honeyphosna One Shots

The Third Wheel (S)

TW: head injury, claustrophobia, a few brief mentions of blood, some breathing difficulties

"It's just that he's not usually gone this long."

The spaceman turned to face the scientist, raising his eyebrow as he sighed. "What in the world are you talking about? He's been gone far longer than this before. Honeydew was raised in the mines—he can handle exploring a cave on his own for a few hours. You don't have to be so concerned."

Lalna pushed his goggles back onto the top of his head, frowning. "He usually checks in, though."

"It's hard to get any sort of stable connection on our headsets at this distance, you know that," Xephos replied.

"Yeah, but—"

A loud sigh. "Look, if you're that worried about it, let's just go and find him ourselves."

Lalna opened his mouth to speak, but stopped himself. It was obvious that Xephos was annoyed that he'd have to drop everything he was working on to satisfy Lalna's paranoia. The scientist figured that verbally agreeing would add to his partner's annoyance, but he certainly wasn't about to turn down the offer, so he just left wordlessly to gather the torches and a sword, and then waited outside for Xephos.

Lalna had resolved to not bring up the matter further because he was too tired to argue, but as they headed toward the cave entrance, he found himself speaking before thinking. "I wish you didn't let him do whatever he wants all the time."

As the words came out, Lalna cringed at his own lack of tact.

Xephos didn't look back, but Lalna saw his shoulders stiffen. "I'm not his mother. I don't 'let' him do anything—he's a grown dwarf, he can make his own damn decisions. And anyway, there's nothing stopping you from telling him what you think he should or shouldn't do, either."

Rubbing a gloved hand against his left temple to ward off an oncoming headache, Lalna paused before jogging to catch up with Xephos. Sensing that he'd overstepped boundaries, he mumbled a hesitant "sorry."

Xephos glanced back at him with an expression of pity rather than the irritation his voice had betrayed just moments ago. "It's fine. I just don't think you give Honeydew enough credit. I'm not saying he shouldn't be more careful, it's just that everyone makes him out to be this great big idiot—and sometimes I'm one of those people—but he really can handle himself, and I wonder what he'd think if he knew you doubted him so much." The words hurt because Lalna knew them to be true. No one knew Honeydew better than Xephos, and no one knew Xephos better than Honeydew. Lalna was just sort of there, occupying a space with them that had not existed in the first place. They weren't a trio despite what he wanted; they were a pair with an extra person following them around. How could Lalna assume he knew better?

The pair rounded a corner and started down a dark path. Honeydew, unlike Xephos, was known to conserve and reuse his torches and thereby often left tunnels he'd been through unlit and unmarked. Xephos and Lalna both hated this habit, and it was one of the relatively few things they managed to agree on.

The scientist said nothing. He would never wish injury on anyone, but a tiny, dark part of him wanted to find Honeydew just about to be overtaken by monsters so that they could rescue him and prove Lalna's worry to be sound. He hated himself for thinking such things, but he had always had darkness inside of him that the others either couldn't see or willfully ignored. Whichever the case, Lalna was glad they treated him as if he was a good person.

As they reached the end of the corridor they had travelled, Xephos apparently began to regret his lack of understanding of Lalna's feelings. "I think you're just worried because you haven't been sleeping enough lately. Lack of sleep does that, Lalna. It puts you on edge." Xephos placed a torch on the wall in front of him and turned, putting a hand on the other man's shoulder. The alien was always like this; grumpy and easy to anger, then sympathetic and motherly in turns. His quickly changing temperament made things difficult sometimes, but it meant that Xephos nearly always said exactly what he felt. He was a lot of things but, for better or for worse, a liar was not one of them.