(ayy, Double Life finally.)

(you wouldn't believe it, but I had the idea for this after watching the first episode of DL. Like, a year ago.)

(we got some injury and blood and mentions of death. And a bit of cursing.)

Grian sat perched on a high up rock, just out of reach of the prowling goat which would likely break his kneecaps, if given the chance. Amusingly, the goat seemed more offended than hurt after having run head-first into a rock and losing one of its horns mere minutes ago.

Grian finished carving out the detached horn and put one end to his mouth, blowing into it. A loud, resounding note came out and he laughed in triumph.

Scott, who was sitting next to him on the rock, jumped at the sudden loud noise.

"Jeeze, Grian, you could have at least warned me first," he said with a laugh.

Before Grian could respond, a similar goat horn sounded, the note echoing through the mountains from somewhere far away. By the time it reached them it was quieter, but the sound still carried clearly through the cold early morning air.

"And so it begins," Scott muttered, shaking his head. "I'm guessing we'll be hearing a lot of that in the coming weeks?"

Grian was silent for a few moments, staring in the direction the responding horn had come from. Then he glanced down at the back of his hand. The image of a green octagonal heart was imprinted on his skin, just like it was on everyone else's hands.

"I wonder who that was," he said half to himself, "and whether they've found their soulmate yet?"

When they had all been transported into the world, they found a book explaining that each of them was bound in life (and death) to another. They would share pain and injuries, but so far no one had figured out who they were bound to. Their "soulmate", as the book put it.

"Who knows," Scott said. "I mean, if you ask me, I think everyone's making a bit too big of a deal out of this soulmate business."

"I don't suppose we're soulmates?"

Scott hummed. "Well, there's only one way to find out."

Without warning, he punched Grian in the arm. More surprised than anything, Grian jolted back and fell off the rock, landing on the rough gravel a few feet below.

"Ow- Dude, what the heck?"

Scott looked down from the rock, grinning. "Nope, definitely not soulmates."

<~~~>

The sun sat at its highest point in the sky, the only time of day that the river, which cut through two steep hills rising on either side, had direct sunlight.

A small party made their way along the narrow rocky bank in single file, taking care not to fall into the river.

"I don't like this," Etho muttered, eying the hills, a loaded crossbow in his hands. The back of his right hand bore the heart image with leafy, flowered vines of a bean plant curled around it. "If someone were to attack us, we'd be sitting ducks down here."

Joel, who was leading the group, half turned to respond. "Trust me, this is the fastest way to the pillager outpost. We'll have a much more defensible position from there. And we're less likely to be spotted than if we were traveling across open ground."

"Besides," Scar piped up from between them, "this is really scenic. Right Minnie?" He directed the last part to the allay which hovered beside him as he walked.

"What's with that allay anyway?" Etho asked. "Why are you bringing it around everywhere?"

"Why, this is my soulmate," Scar said proudly.

Etho turned his head to look at Grian, the last member of the group, with an eyebrow raised. Grian looked up and shrugged. Etho made a twirling motion with his finger beside his head, which got a half-smile out of the shorter man.

Etho slowed his pace a little, allowing the gap in the line to widen until he was at level with Grian. "You doing alright?" he asked. "You've barely said anything this whole time."

Grian continued to look straight ahead as he walked. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Etho looked over to where Scar was, now talking cheerfully to his allay. He had a cookie and was breaking off pieces to give to the blue fairy.

"You haven't talked to him since Third Life," he said quietly. It was more of a statement than a question.

Grian didn't respond. Of course he had talked to Scar in Hermitcraft, but they weren't in Hermitcraft. It wasn't the same in these places, these games(if you could even call them that).

Etho waited patiently through the silence before continuing. "What happened back then, you weren't given a choice. You both know that."

Grian could almost feel the oppressive head of the sun again. Could almost taste the hot, dusty air. And the voices... He could still hear them, clear as day. It hadn't been the first time he had heard voices, but they had never screamed like that.

They had never screamed for blood.

"I killed him," Grian said, his voice barely a whisper. "I killed him with my own bare hands." He felt a prickling behind his eyes, but he kept them trained on the ground in front of him. "I don't think he'll ever forgive me for that."

Stones clattered down the steep hillside and Etho looked up nervously, raising the crossbow level with the ground. "You don't know that," he said with a tight jaw.

A blue shape flashed across the corner of Grian's vision and he looked up to see the allay flying off across the river. Scar yelled something, at the same time turning to run after it.

Startled by the sudden yell and splashing, Etho inadvertently squeezed the trigger.

The crossbow bolt shot out with a sharp woosh of air. Grian watched with helpless terror and staggered from the pain as the bolt struck Scar's left arm, right above the elbow.

Scar screamed as the current swept his feet from under him and he disappeared.

A shock of cold struck Grian. He thought he heard shouting. Joel and Etho ran past him, downstream. Bur Grian was frozen to the spot, clutching his arm. Blood seeped between his fingers and ran down the back of his hand, across the green heart.

Something was changing about it. There were flowers growing from behind it. Before his horrified eyes, the images of flowers bloomed into red-orange aloe flowers, fanning out across the back of his hand.

"No..." Not him. Grian saw Etho pulling Scar out of the river.

Anyone but him.

He was barely aware of his own scream, only the harsh burning in his throat as he sank to the ground. "This has to be a joke..." He wasn't even sure if he said it out loud, his voice was shaking so badly. He glared up at the sky, tears of pain clouding his vision. "Tell me this is a joke!"

There was no answer. He held his head in his hands as if he could somehow stop himself from shaking. This was all just a bad dream. Any moment, he would wake up in the real world, where everything was fine and none of this had ever happened.

Where Third Life had never happened.

He could vaguely hear thudding, loose gravel being kicked up. But he wasn't sure what it meant until he heard Etho's voice beside him.

"It's alright, Grian. We've got Scar, he's going to be okay. Joel's with him."

Grian didn't respond, he was too tired to. And he knew Scar hadn't died, because if he had, he-

"Are... you okay?" Etho asked.

Grian nodded, standing up. But as soon as he did, the world spun around him and he swayed dangerously. Etho caught him, setting him back down on the ground. Then he saw the blood covering Grian's hand and swore under his breath.

He didn't even seem to see the design of aloe flowers, too preoccupied with figuring out where the blood was coming from. He soon noticed the blood-soaked sleeve, and carefully rolled it up to reveal the wound, which was still seeping blood.

Etho froze when he saw the wound with nothing to have caused it, not even a tear in the sleeve. Grian could see it in his eyes, the moment he realized what had happened.

But he didn't say anything. Silently, he washed the blood away and cleaned the wound. It didn't look nearly as bad now, and he knew from examining Scar a few minutes before that there was probably no permanent damage done, and it would heal easily once they could get their hands on some potions.

Until now, Grian had barely felt the pain, but he tried not to wince as Etho wrapped bandages around his arm. When he finished, the Canadian handed him a bottle of water. It was cool and refreshing, but did little to calm Grian's nerves.

Trying not to move his arm too much, Grian took a length of the remaining bandage roll and wrapped it around his right hand, covering the picture of the heart and flowers. He pulled his sleeve back down, hoping the blood wouldn't show too much on the red sweater. Then he looked at Etho, who even now looked concerned at Grian's state.

"Please don't tell him," he whispered.

After a moment, Etho nodded.

<~~~>

The pillage outpost plan... didn't really go as intended. There were, of course, pillagers but there were also ravagers, and the small group ended up being chased out of the area.

Unfortunately, the pillagers didn't seem content with just letting them leave.

Grian heard crossbows being fired and bolts whisking past him as he ran. For the most part, the four of them had managed to avoid being hit. But Joel and Etho, running side by side, were both bleeding from the same cut on the side of their faces; a close brush with death from minutes before. Etho had run out of bolts quickly, and no one wanted to risk fighting in close quarters with those ravagers.

Scar stumbled and for a moment Grian felt his stomach drop from fear, but Scar managed to regain his balance, still running.

What they were running towards was a base. And while they weren't sure who it belonged to, the blue-haired person they could see standing outside gave a pretty good indication.

"Hey!" Joel shouted, waving his arms in the air as he ran. "Hey, Scott!"

"What the hell are you doing?!" was the response he got. Obviously, the hoard of pillagers and ravagers behind them didn't send a very friendly message.

"Hopefully not dying!" Etho shouted back. "Can you let us in?"

Scott didn't reply. They were close enough that they could see the bow in his hands as he drew it back, aiming in their direction, and released.

The arrow flew over their heads, striking one of the pillagers and knocking it from its mount.

"I guess that's our answer," Joel breathed.

Along with Scott, there was someone firing arrows from the roof. Not all the arrows found their marks, but the hoard was hesitant to keep going towards their source, which gave the small party time to reach the base and run through the door, which Scott slammed shut behind them.

Scott shoved a table in front of the door and held it there. Moments later, the door shook as something forced against it from the other side. They could hear shouts and roars coming from outside, some angry and some pained. But those, as well as the ravagers' thunderous footsteps, began to lessen and recede until all was quiet.

No one spoke for a minute. Scott looked up at the sound of light footsteps from above. A moment later, Pearl slid down a ladder, bow in hand.

"They've retreated back to the outpost," she said firmly. Scott nodded, standing up straight again. Then he turned to the group that had just arrived and crossed his arms.

"What in the name of Aeor were the four of you doing?"

"Well that's simple," Scar said, smiling. "We tried to take their outpost, and they didn't want to give it up." He put his hand on the table, leaning against it. But his hand slipped, resulting in him falling and hitting his face against the side of the table. "Ow-"

Grian shut his eyes at the sudden pain which struck his head. Of course Scar hadn't noticed, rubbing his own head and laughing it off. Pearl was saying something about their plan having been a terrible one, while Joel and Etho were defending it. But Grian barely heard them.

And when he looked up, Scott was staring at him.

After a moment or two, Scott briefly turned his eyes toward Scar then looked back at Grian, raising an eyebrow.

Grian sighed and nodded.

Scott muttered something that sounded like "damn" and walked over to stand next to Grian.

"Does he know?" he asked quietly.

Grian shook his head. "No."

Scott hesitated before asking: "Are you gonna tell him?"

"I don't know."

The blue-haired man rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Grian noticed the green heart on his hand had vines around it with pale moonflowers. "You know," he said at length, "there's no rule saying you have to stick with your soulmate."

Grian hadn't thought of that. But immediately he felt guilty for even considering it as a possibility. It just felt wrong. Dishonest.

When Grian didn't say anything in response, Scott shrugged and turned to look back at the rest of the group, still arguing over the best way to overtake an outpost.

"Nevermind, it was just a thought."

<~~~>

Grian picked his way through the jungle. Sunlight filtered down through the leaves, creating a dappled effect on everything, and every now and then a parrot would flap past.

Since the failed attempt at taking an outpost the day before, the group had split up and gone their separate ways. Which was why Grian had been wandering alone for some time now. He knew he needed allies and some sort of base. Fighting could break out at any minute, and he was at a disadvantage by himself.

But right now, there was something he needed to take care of.

The trees thinned out ahead, and stalks of bamboo reached up toward the sky. Between all the greenery something moved and Grian froze, a sword from his inventory flashing into his hand, raised in defense.

Until he heard a familiar voice from the same direction as the movement.

"Well aren't you just the biggest, fluffiest thing anyone's ever seen?"

Grian lowered the sword and it flashed away again. He'd found Scar, but now what? Conflicted, he just stood there. After coming all this way, he couldn't bring himself to move forward. To call out.

Scar moved into view through the bamboo, and Grian saw what he'd been talking to: a panda. Scar was petting the huge animal, laughing and talking to it. Grian watched in silence.

Scar was doing just fine without him. Maybe even better off. What good would telling him they were soulmates even do? Grian turned to leave. Scar probably wouldn't want to see him anyway.

"Hey- Hey, Grian! Is that you?"

Grian stopped mid-step when he heard Scar call. He couldn't really leave now. So instead, he took a deep breath and turned to see the man running over.

"Grian, check it out. I found all these pandas!" Scar didn't give Grian a chance to react or even say hello, grabbing his hand and running back through the jungle, pulling him along.

Sure enough, in a clearing surrounded by bamboo was around half a dozen pandas ambling about. Scar brought him over to where one was just sitting lazily in the grass.

"Just feel it," Scar said excitedly. "It's the softest thing ever."

He didn't really have much of a choice, or a reason not to, so Grian reached out and stroked the black and white fur. It really was soft, softer than he would have expected. The panda snorted and rolled over, landing on its back. Scar laughed out loud and started talking about the pandas: about how he was thinking of giving them all names and Jellie hats, and he thought he'd seen a brown panda earlier, but he couldn't be sure.

After a few minutes, Grian stopped him. "I actually came out here because I wanted to talk to you about something," he said before he could decide against it.

Scar looked up from where he sat, petting one of the pandas. "Sure. What is it?"

"Well... Have you figured out who your soulmate is yet?"

Scar was silent for several seconds. Then he looked back down, scratching the panda behind the ears. "No. But it doesn't really matter. It's not a big deal."

Grian didn't want to tell him, but he felt like he had to. "Scar, I know who your soulmate is."

"...Have you ever realized that these pandas are just like giant cats?" Scar asked, almost like he hadn't heard Grian. But he had. Grian heard him hesitate.

"Scar, just listen to me for a moment," Grian pleaded. Of course Scar didn't want to talk to him, what had he been thinking?

The panda snorted and Scar rubbed its face, refusing to look up. "I told you, it's not a big deal."

"Why won't you hear me out? Why won't you just listen?"

Scar stood up suddenly, glaring at Grian. "Because I don't want to know who my soulmate is!" he shouted. "I don't want to know who I'm dragging down!"

"...What?" Grian wasn't sure what reaction he'd expected, but it definitely wasn't that. "Scar, what are you talking about?"

It was some time before Scar answered, clearly embarrassed as if he hadn't planned on saying that. "I just... Everyone knows how clumsy I am." He sat down again, hugging his knees to his chest and looking at the ground. "I've always known I'd die in these games, but now someone else is going to suffer because of me... And I don't want to know who I'm hurting. I could never look them in the eyes knowing I'm the reason they don't stand a chance." He let out a shaking breath. "And knowing just how disappointed in me they really are."

Grian had no idea how to respond. None of that had occurred to him. He had never even bothered to think of how Scar was feeling about all this. "Why didn't you say something?" was all he could think to ask.

When Scar looked up at him, his eyes were full of hurt, and Grian knew immediately that he had said the wrong thing.

"You've been avoiding me," Scar said quietly. "Ever since Third Life. You barely even speak to me anymore. And... Look, I don't know what I did, but I'm sorry."

"No, no, you didn't do anything wrong." Grian reached out to put his hand on Scar's shoulder, but he cringed away. "I... I thought you wouldn't want to talk to me after what happened back then... I thought you would hate me for it."

Scar opened his mouth as if to say something, but no words came out, so he just shook his head.

There was nothing to say to that, so Grian didn't say anything. The two of them just sat across from each other in a silence that lasted several minutes until Scar finally broke it.

"I'm sorry I yelled," he said. "And... I'm sorry I never told you that I forgive you."

Grian smiled a bit. He didn't feel much like smiling, but he wanted to make sure Scar knew it was okay. "I'm just sorry I made you feel like a bad friend."

"I... can't believe this was all because of a miscommunication." Scar shook his head, chuckling. "I mean, that's so dumb, right?"

"Like cheesy sitcom levels of dumb," Grian put in, glad they could joke about it.

Scar grinned. "Yeah... Speaking of which, I'm guessing you still don't know who your soulmate is either, huh?"

Grian wasn't sure what the connection between those two things was, but he supposed it didn't really matter. And strangely, he didn't feel as worried now about telling Scar. "Actually, I did find them."

He thought he saw disappointment cross his friend's expression. "Oh. Well, that's great. That's awesome. I mean, you're pretty good at surviving and all, so I guess that helps their chances too, and uh, yeah."

"So we cancel each other out, then?"

"...What?"

Grian rolled up his sleeve. Of course, Scar had obtained a healing potion some time ago and the wound had healed, but it left a glaringly obvious scar in its place.

Scar's eyes widened. "How did you... get that?"

"You took a crossbow bolt to the arm, remember?" Grian was trying hard not to laugh at Scar's confused shock.

"Wha- No. You're kidding. "Scar was laughing now. "How long have you known about this?"

A grin broke out across Grian's face. "About as long as I've had this. But look, now we're matching!"

"This is just reaching insane levels of coincidence."

"I'm not even sure it is coincidence anymore," Grian said. "And don't worry. I'm not disappointed. What chance do you think the two of us have at winning this?"

Scar stood up, an amused smile still on his face. "Now that is a very good question. "He offered his right hand to help Grian to his feet, and as Grian took it he noticed the heart image on it had flowers blooming around it. Huge flowers that were a bright, laughing yellow.

They were sunflowers.

"I guess we're going to have to figure it out together," Scar said cheerfully.

Finally on his feet again, Grian nodded, feeling much lighter than he had in a long time.