CHAPTER ONE!! (if you think you've seen this before, you have. this is a rewrite of an old fic that is very different and much better than the original :))
Bdubs' mind halts when a heavy weight barrels into him from the side. He didn't even hear the person coming, but now they're on top of him, straddling him, two blue eyes glowing in the darkness. Bdubs blinks in surprise. An android?
He doesn't have time to dwell on it before the android hits him with a brutal backhanded swing. He desperately tries to buck it off of him, legs scrabbling for purchase but sliding on the shards of glass under him.
The android sits back, and Bdubs surges up to follow it, but it slams a hand down heavily on his chest and he goes down hard enough to knock his head against the concrete and glass shards and make black spots dance in his vision. His hand grasps futilely at the android's wrist, nails ripping at its plastic skin.
Tango and Bdubs are caught in the crossfire of a turf war, trapped somwhere they no longer want to be. E-THO has lived his whole existence as a standard issue domestic service android when he suddenly wakes up with a consciousness.
Once upon a time, there was a prince. This prince was the kindest boy in the land, and everyone who ever met him couldn't help but love him. However, this prince had a terrible curse placed upon him by an evil sorceress when he was born. This curse said he was fated to prick his finger on a spindle and fall into an eternal slumber on his sixteenth birthday.
That's the story at least.
Bdubs really is asleep, and an evil sorceress did the job, sure. But thorns aren't what's killing all these would-be suitors. No, that would be Etho.
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the first chapter is a fic that I wrote for day 5 of ethubs week 2025, and chapter two will be something never-before-seen and delicious ;)
oh baby i LOVE fairy tales. I'm taking a german class on them this semester :D I would have liked to have gotten more into the details on this bad boy, but my time is up and I gotta do my reading (1548 words)
Once upon a time, there was a prince. This prince was the kindest boy in the land, and everyone who ever met him couldn't help but love him. However, this prince had a terrible curse placed upon him by an evil sorceress when he was born. This curse said he was fated to prick his finger on a spindle and fall into an eternal slumber on his sixteenth birthday.
Thankfully, there was a good fairy there on that fateful day to save the prince from his sad fate. She could not undo the curse, but she could lessen its effect. And so she declared that the prince would not sleep forever, but for just one hundred years, and could be woken early by a true love's kiss.
To save their son from even that lesser hardship, the king and queen ordered that every spindle in the kingdom be burned in a huge pyre. This was very bad for the economy. And yet despite that, on his sixteenth birthday the prince did prick his finger on a spindle the sorceress had hidden away, and it cast him into a deep slumber from which it seemed he would never awaken.
Yet there was hope: true love's kiss. Soon, suitors from all over the kingdom and even from neighboring kingdoms came flocking to the castle. The evil sorceress was furious at the thought that someone might thwart her plan, and used her magic to grow briar thorns three meters deep and deadly sharp, all around the castle in order to keep suitors out.
The royals and their court had no option but to flee to another castle. They left the prince alone to sleep until he was saved or a century would pass, trapped by terrible thorns and hoping everyday for true love to finally wake him.
That's the story at least.
Bdubs really is asleep, and an evil sorceress did the job, sure. But thorns aren't what's killing all these would-be suitors. No, that would be Etho.
·༻𐫱༺·
Someone's gotten through the briar. Etho can sense it like a tingle down his spine, where the young man has hacked his way through the thorns he grows to deter visitors. While there are far fewer now than there were when he first planted the vines, these new suitors are tougher, although not often smarter. He can see the tresspasser in his mind's eye, wearing shining plate armor and weilding a broadsword. The good fairies have had their way with this one as well: the shield he carries is bright with magic.
The sorceress put a monster in there, they say. She grew the briar and made sure that no person could ever save the prince. What would they think if they knew that Etho's mother lost her interest in the prince once the boy had fallen asleep? The king's suffering was what she wanted, and that's what she got. He raged over his son's fate until the day he died. She couldn't care less what happens to Bdubs now.
Etho concentrates on the magic humming in his heart, until the gap in the briar is filled and three times sharper than before. He strides to the window of the chamber at the very top of the centermost tower, where he had been spending a quiet morning with Bdubs before he was interrupted. From this vantage, the knight looks like a bit of dandelion fluff, brandishing his sword at the thorns like a kitten. It makes Etho grin, and he turns his head to share his amusement with Bdubs.
"What do you think, B? Reckon I can beat my record?"
He starts for the door without waiting for a response. His fastest time is fifteen minutes, and the odds are low that he'd even be able to make it to the main entrance in that time. The day he made that record, he'd been tending to the garden when a woman in mercenary garb dropped quietly over the wall right behind him. To her credit, he hadn't noticed her passing through the briar, and she very well might have gotten further if she hadn't picked a bad spot to climb.
The halls of the king's castle are forgotten, apart from the places where Etho has walked daily for fifteen years. The paintings on the walls are recognizable, but their golden frames are not, and nearly a quarter inch of dust cakes every table, floorboard, and carpet. The kitchen, the garden, the washroom, and Bdubs' room are amongst the only preserved spaces in the entire castle.
Etho meets the knight just past the main hall, halfway to the throne room. The man is a lot larger in person. His hulking frame looms over Etho—who is not short, unlike Sleeping Beauty up in his tower—and his sword is nothing to scoff at either, the width of Etho's thigh.
The knight blinks in confusion to see Etho there. Everyone knows that the monster guarding the sleeping prince is a dragon, after all. Could this young man be another suitor? He wears light armor, but also a fine green cloak embroidered with the sign of the Glare House, and stranger still, his clothes underneath the both of them are that of a peasant. Some kind of robber, then? His mismatched eyes shine with challenge—or is that threat?
The knight learns the answer to his question the hard way. Etho lets go of his human shape just enough to breathe a plume of green flame towards the knight. The man pulls his shield up enough to cover against most of the blast, but cries out as he's burned.
Pain makes the human angrier, and he strikes out at Etho, wielding his huge sword one-handed with impressive dexterity. Etho bats the sword away with his wings. A wave of vicious delight slinks over him while he watches the knight realize he is going to die.
In many ways that matter very much, Etho is not his mother's child. However, he never feels closer to her than while watching primal fear cross the faces of the people is about to kill. In the hallway like this, he can't shift fully into a dragon form, but just halfway will do the job. It's an awfully bad idea to wear heavy plate armor to fight a dragon, you see, because if he just knocks that silly shield away with his tail and breathes a little fire right into the knight's chestplate… what do you know? Etho's cooked himself dinner.
Cleaning up his mess takes long enough that the sun has started to set by the time he's finished carrying his loot up to Bdubs' tower. He'll melt it down into ore tomorrow, to be used in some project or other. He has a growing collection of delicate jewelry that he dresses Bdubs up in on special occasions.
Speaking of the prince, Etho takes a seat on the edge of his bed and takes one warm hand in both of his cool ones. His thumbs massage gently across Bdubs' palm. He already washed and changed the prince's clothing in the morning, and the magic of the curse means he doesn't need food, nor water, nor does he age, but Etho does what he can to take care of Bdubs and make him comfortable. Bdubs is doing this for him, after all.
Dragons live much longer than humans. Even a half-dragon like Etho will live far longer than a human could ever dream of. Bdubs begged Etho to let the curse consume him. They fought about it for months, up until just days before Bdubs' sixteenth birthday. Etho knew his mother's plans, had told them to Bdubs, in order for the prince to prepare, in order to keep him safe, and yet Bdubs had insisted, over and over, that this curse was a blessing in disguise.
"If I sleep for a hundred years, then we can grow old together!"
Etho had finally agreed. The only thing worse than watching something bad happen to Bdubs would be to lose him completely, after all, to have to go on without him. Even now, he can't say he regrets their decision. At least Bdubs is still here.
"That knight was almost too easy," Etho tells Bdubs in their quiet bedroom. "Who wears plate to come fight a dragon?"
He came to terms with what he had to do to protect Bdubs a long time ago. It was not the first time he killed, but it was what hardened his heart against the act. Bdubs had been explicitly clear—no kissing. The plan was to let the curse last its entire duration, and so Bdubs couldn't risk a single kiss. Etho took it upon himself to protect him. It was the very least he could do, since Bdubs was doing this for him.
Still, sometimes he considers it. Kissing Bdubs, breaking the curse.
Etho changes into soft clothes and folds back the covers on his side of the bed. He lays Bdubs' cloak overtop the blankets and tucks his head into the crook of the prince's neck like usual. His ear rests against his chest, and he can hear his sleep-slow breath and the steady thump of Bdubs' heart. It's a comfort unlike any other.
one day late! I was beach hopping yesterday :) I'm ending this week with the most self-indulgent of all of my works so far... kind of embarrassed to post it
thank you to everyone who's been so very nice to me in reblogs all week I love you all! this whole week felt soooo good and fun and happy because of you guys, your good vibes carried me through a stressful week irl so thank you <3 (1349 words)
"Ethoooo!" Bdubs sings, kicking in the door to the man's house without knocking. He is greeted not, as he expected, with the sight of Etho at his wobbly kitchen table, nor even the sound of Etho shouting from another room. Instead, Bdubs enters a silent, still room in what appears to be an empty house. Which is strange, because he knows for a fact that Etho is home.
"Etho?" Bdubs wanders into the small living room. "Etho?" Where the hell is this guy?
A quiet, high pitched noise rings out through the house. Huh. That's weird. Bdubs follows the noise deeper into the house, but it doesn't sound again.
"Etho?" Bdubs asks again, quieter. He's starting to feel like a broken record. He treads slowly through the hallway that leads towards the bathroom and Etho's bedroom. As he passes the bathroom door, he swears he hears that same noise again.
Closer, he can make it out better. It's a soft whine, but it's choked off like the source of the noise is being suppressed.
"Etho? You okay?" Bdubs knows the answer to that question already. Etho generally stifles a lot of his arctic fox hybrid traits. It's part of that cool, mysterious vibe that he has going on (although when they're alone, Bdubs can make Etho's tail wag just by smiling at him), and it's seriously unusual for him to be whining in distress like this.
The only response he gets is another pitiful whine, this time full-volume. It wrenches Bdubs' heart. Etho is giving up and asking for help, or his distress is so strong he can't stifle his instincts anymore. Either way, Bdubs is coming to the rescue.
"I'm coming in!" he informs Etho before shouldering open the door.
Etho is curled on the floor of the bathroom with his back against the tub, wearing just a tank and shorts, and no mask. When Bdubs stumbles in, he looks up at him with tears in his eyes. He's just a little ball of white fur and sadness, ears pressed flat against his head and fluffy tail curled around him so that he can fidget with it. In his distress, he seems to be pulling at the fur there.
"Hi, sweetheart," Bdubs says gently. Immediately, he drops to his knees so that they're on the same level. He reaches for Etho's hands, and although he flinches away at first, he lets Bdubs take his hands away from his tail. Bdubs squeezes them firmly, which always seems to help. "What's up with you, huh?" he teases.
Etho's face scrunches up in frustration and a tear rolls down his face. Oh man, and doesn't that just feel like an arrow through Bdubs' heart? Etho pries his ears away from his skull and lets Bdubs see a big mat right where the right one meets his head. His fur and hair have tangled to the point that it must be agony to try to comb it out, especially since Etho's ears are so sensitive. No wonder the man is distressed.
"Poor kit," Bdubs hums. He reaches out, and although Etho's mouth twists, he lets Bdubs touch his ears. Bdubs scritches where his ears meet his skull, towards the outside of his head away from the mat. Instantly, Etho melts into the touch and his tail flicks behind him.
Look, obviously Bdubs doesn't prefer that Etho is so stressed out he's not able to suppress all these instinctual sounds and movements, okay? He respects that the man likes to keep this stuff to himself. However, Bdubs is kind of loving this. Not only is Etho being sweet, he's also crazy easy to read right now, which is—and Bdubs cannot overstate this—so fucking crucial to Bdubs' success here.
"Where's your detangling conditioner?" Bdubs asks. Etho whines petulantly in response, and doesn't move. "Yeah, I know you don't wanna get wet but I can't fix it if you don't let me do this for you, sweetheart." Finally Etho points at the the cabinet under his sink.
Bdubs grabs the container of conditioner and a small pitcher, then some specially designed ear plugs Etho uses to keep water out of them.
"Okay baby, lean over the tub please." Bdubs lays a rolled up towel over the edge to soften it for him. He expects Etho to lay over the edge on his front, but instead the man lays his shoulders on the towel and lets his head hang backwards over the tub. The position bares the long line of his neck to Bdubs, who does not miss the significance of the action.
It's almost intoxicating, the pride and affection that sweeps through him in the moment. Even upset, especially when he's upset, Etho trusts him with everything. Trusts him enough to let him fix the thing that's upsetting him, to pet him, to see his belly at a time like this. God, Bdubs could kiss him. And he will! But first he'll fix all of Etho's problems.
He lets the water run until it's nice and warm, and fills the little pitcher. When he pours the water over Etho's head, he tries to avoid letting it run on the insides of his ears and covers his eyes with his other hand.
Next he takes a generous two pumps of conditioner to the mat. He works it in as thoroughly as he can, and then starts diligently pulling it apart. It's not easy, even with the conditioner softening the tangles, and Bdubs can see how Etho got into a tizzy trying to solve this on his own. It takes nearly fifteen minutes before he can run a comb through it, and Etho loses a little bit of hair and fur.
Not that the man of the hour seems to mind that, since he's been laying there purring the whole time. Guess that means Bdubs was doing a good job of not pulling his hair. Etho's eyes are closed in contentment and Bdubs decides that well, since he's here, he might as well finish the job, right?
Etho's eyes roll behind his eyelids when Bdubs massages shampoo into his scalp. He scritches at his ears again and puts some real nice pressure around his neck and temples. Bdubs is a scholar of all things Etho—his body language, the sounds he makes, the way he takes his coffee, the best places to massage for maximum purr-volume, all kinds of things—and so he is perfectly equipped to give this guy the best hair wash he's ever had in his life.
Finally, Bdubs is finished fixing Etho up. He dries his hair and ears with a soft towel, very very gently and carefully so as not to immediately undo all of his hard work. Etho is a far cry from how Bdubs found him earlier. His ears are relaxed, his body is loose, and his tail taps idly against Bdubs' leg in a steady pat-pat-pat.
The moment the towel is out of his way, Etho leans (falls) forward and right onto Bdubs. He ducks his head into the crook of Bdubs' neck and shoulder and smushes his face in there hard. Then he digs his sharp jawbone into Bdubs' neck even harder as he goes to town aggressively scenting him. Bdubs is actually ready whenever Etho decides to go back to his usual self, come to think of it, now that he's being attacked like this.
"Oh come on," Bdubs complains through a mouthful of wet hair. "You're getting me soaked, you idiot!"
Etho yips a little laugh and lightens up on the affection. He lays his head on Bdubs' shoulder and keeps it there for a while, just taking deep breaths.
After a few minutes, Etho finally speaks, just before Bdubs opens his mouth to make a scene about sitting on the bathroom floor for so long.
"Thanks, B." He tightens his arms around Bdubs' waist. Clingy as hell, not that Bdubs minds.
"Oh you know." Bdubs waves him off, then thinks better of it. "Anytime, sweetheart."
