#tbh Petruccio probably forgets a lot that Gonzalo doesn't get as jealous as he does

[moonfurthetemmie]

So i said that part of Gonzalo and Petruccio's separation anxiety and jealousy was because, when the rings showed up and everyone else killed each other, some people almost found where they were hiding

And while i think that's definitely going to be part of why they're so protective of each other, but i think the rest is more from travelers who came by afterwards.

Do you think two kids who just witnessed such a horrific scene would've buried the bodies? Especially with how awful the villagers were to Gonzalo in particular?

Maybe some of their friends from the traveling theater troupe, but most of the bodies were probably ignored.

Imagine being on a long journey, and you see a sign that points to a nearby village, and you decide to stop to rest and maybe stock up on supplies.

But it's empty. Not a soul to be found.

Until you find your way to the stage set up near a hill with a strange tree on it, and you find the rotting corpses of everyone who had lived here. There's blood on the stage, maybe still in the grass.

And then these two kids come down from the hill. They look human, but not quite. They have these odd rings on chains around their necks. They ask you where you came from. They look at the corpses with disgust but seem otherwise unbothered.

Something is wrong with them. They look at you like a spider watching a fly as it wanders near the web. The younger of the two looks like he's expecting you to attack them, and is ready to stab you if you try.

And they will kill travelers sometimes.

Sometimes their guests realized that they're in danger before it gets that far and are ready to defend themselves.

Sometimes their guests know about the Tree and want to steal the fruit, through whatever means necessary.

Sometimes (though rarely) their guests are also looking for a new victim, and don't care if they're kids if it'll satiate their bloodlust.

And sometimes their guests noticed absolutely nothing, and just felt bad for the two kids living alone with nothing but each other and the remains of the dead for company.

They've probably been tricked and forcibly separated from each other multiple times. Each time, whoever went off with the stranger got hurt and almost died.

Or the stranger tried to 'adopt' one of them and take them away.

Occasionally there are other kids. Kids they get along with. Kids that may get along better with one of them than the other. And Gonzalo never had a friend his age, so any time one of those kids decided they liked him, he'd be much more excited to go play with then than Petruccio would be if he made such a friend.

Petruccio probably became much better at taking care of Gonzalo out of necessity once they got the rings, and between their precarious situation and everything that they'd been through he feels like he's the only one Gonzalo can really trust.

And that Gonzalo's the only one he can really trust.

So seeing his dearest friend spend more and more time with someone else...

Gonzalo, used to Petruccio spending time with other friends, doesn't care as much. so he thinks it's funny. in fact he probably thought it was so funny as a kid he did it on purpose a lot. Part of it might've been because Petruccio would never have gotten so jealous if he didn't care about Gonzalo, and the thought made Gonzalo very happy.

it probably took a while for Petruccio to notice, and which point Gonzalo had chilled with intentionally making him jealous. he still thinks it's funny though.