The next day, while 2-D was playing a table game with everyone in the living room, he saw Murdoc come down the stairs, dressed to leave the house. His move was not soon, so he got up from the floor, stepped over a set of cards and chips and caught Murdoc near the kitchen.

"Are you leaving?" He asked. "Won't you wait a bit? We'll finish soon."

"Not necessarily, stay at home."

"We already - how many? - We go for a walk for five days?" 2-D muttered breathlessly. "You know, I still want to be with you, we just started playing and we have to finish."

"I'll go for a little walk and meditate," Murdoc said.

"Then fine. Come here… " 2-D said as he took Murdoc to the refrigerator and handed him sandwiches and tea.

"Why should I..".

"You're going to get hungry," 2-D said. "Take it! I already cooked it anyway."

"Okay, thanks," Murdoc said without much emotion, throwing the food into his bag.

2-D glanced around furtively, groping Murdoc out the thin kitchen door, nearly breaking the mosquito net. Anxiously looking around the kitchen, he closed the door behind him, and finally, having made up his mind, kissed Murdoc.

After kissing, he pulled away, and Murdoc nodded to him at the door to get him off the ground. 2-D didn't argue, went into the kitchen, got a goodbye slap on the ass from Murdoc, snorted at him like a cat, and entered the house.

Having received food, Murdoc headed towards the bay.

He leisurely climbed a high flat rock, which he had visited with 2-D at least three times, and, biting the tip of a match in his teeth, looked through his eyelashes at the gray northern sea glittering under pale yellow sunlight.

Looking around the entire area lying in the lowland under the rock, he growled extremely displeased, folding his arms over his chest. For a long time he looked at different parts of the island: now one forest, now another, now a pile of stones, now a clearing, now a rocky slope, from which springs made their way. Without seeing anything special, he exhaled and decided to go down.

At that moment, with peripheral vision, he noticed how something that had not been before flashed from the edge of the coast. Murdoc lifted the peak of his cap and peered in the direction from where the glare had come to him. It seemed to him, or in fact, in the coastal water, something glowed with a blue-blue sheen. Because of the moving waves and from such a distance, it was impossible to really see anything, and Murdoc, holding his bag, fell off the cliff, slipping with the soles of his boots, in some places falling and breaking down, trying to get to the water as quickly as possible.

Having descended flush with the shore, he raised his head and found that there was nothing in the water and, moreover, he did not remember exactly where he saw this glow. He ran to the rocky shore, walked back and forth, stopped and irritatedly kicked a small stone with the toe of his boot.

Hearing the stomp, Murdoc covered his face with his hand in annoyance, waiting to be called.

"Murdoc!" shouted 2-D happily, as usual.

"What?" Murdoc snapped irritably.

2-D got stuck on a grassy island, afraid to move on.

"I'm sorry," he said the first thing he came up with. "You have a bad mood…"

Murdoc immediately breathed his nose, bringing himself to his senses.

"I was walking down the mountain and twisted my leg," he lied.

"Ah," 2-D was almost delighted, smiling weakly. "Can I help you?"

"You can't," Murdock said calmly. "Just… come on, come here."

He reached out and led 2-D, who was grabbing it, to the water. He stepped closer, stopping next to Murdoc. Noticing interesting stones, he dived down, picking up one of them, an oblong stone.

Swinging, he hurled the rock as far from the shore as possible, enjoying the final splash. He looked up at the thin, misty clouds in the sky and, trying not to anger Murdoc, put his arm around Murdoc's neck. Murdoc squinted at him, frowning.

"Everything will pass," 2-D promised, looking at the wet pebbles under his feet. "That's for sure. Look, pink stone," he said, and abruptly sat down to dig in the pebbles.

"A piece of shell," Murdoc explained.

"Exactly," 2-D agreed, examining a piece of pinkish carapace.

He turned the piece over and coarse sand poured out of it.

"There's a metal bolt here," 2-D said, examining his palm. "It's silvery."

"Come on," Murdoc took his fingers and leaned over to his hand. "Maybe from the shipwreck."

"No, It fell into the water, fell into a shell, and it was brought by the current," 2-D decided. "I'll take it."

"What for?"

"We can't leave the bolt in the water," 2-D said reproachfully.

"Well... And why the shell?"

"It's beautiful," 2-D said, looking at Murdoc like an idiot who doesn't understand the obvious.

Murdoc didn't say anything, straightening up next to 2-D and, when he stuffed his finds in his pockets, went with him to the side of the house to have dinner.

In the middle of the night, when everyone was asleep in the quiet house, Murdoc leaned naked from the half-open window, smoking in the black shade of a tall tree hanging over the roof of the house. He exhaled smoke and steam from his mouth from the cold. There was silence all around, broken only by the hollow and dull cries of a night bird that came from the distant forest.

Below, near the wall of the house, there was a rustle. Murdoc turned around, but saw only the branches of the bushes swinging. He was alert. Having finished smoking quickly, he put out and threw out the cigarette butt. Returning to the room, he closed the window behind the padlock, drew the curtains and returned to 2-D's bed.

"Did you go out?" 2-D asked quietly and threw back the edge of the blanket.

"I didn't," Murdoc whispered, crawling under the blanket.

"Smoked?"

"Yes," Niccals agreed. "Will you go?"

"No," 2-D replied. "Just kiss me."

Murdoc leaned over to him, hiding under the warm blanket and at the same time pressing icy palms into his stomach. 2-D shuddered all over and howled for help in a kiss, but Murdoc's hands began to warm and he calmed down.

However, as soon as Niссals deviated, he immediately received a blow to the head. Unable to restrain himself, Murdoc slapped D with an answer, for which he received a jab in the ribs with his elbow. He grabbed 2-D by the elbow, by the wrist of the other hand, pressed his hands to the pillow and, while he tried to pull away, licked his ear. 2-D shuddered, but differently. He stopped kicking. Murdoc gingerly nibbled on the edge of 2-D's ear, cupped the lobe with his lips and released it from his mouth.

2-D freed his hands and looked at Murdoc, wiping his ear.

"It's better than a fight," he remarcable.

"Yeah," Murdoc agreed, kissing him on the edge of his chin.

"But please don't do that again," 2-D asked. "My heart almost stopped."

"Maybe," Murdoc said. "But if it stops, I will know what to do."

2-D shoved him again, but this time more affectionately than angrily.

"I don't want to sleep now," 2-D complained, looking at Murdoc in the darkness of the room, yawning. "People yawn to cool their brains," he added.

"You on this island did not have the feeling that someone was watching you?" Murdoc asked.

"Only when you are watching.

"Not that," Murdoc said. "Someone else, from the outside."

2-D thought about it and shivered.

"Now I'm scared," he said. "Couldn't any dangerous animals get here? Are there wolves or bears?"

"You and I went all along and across. I've never seen anyone bigger than squirrels," Murdoc said. "Once I noticed a raccoon. Maybe it was a fox."

"Foxes are dangerous too," 2-D remarked.

"They're more afraid of you than you are of them," Murdoc assured.

"Probably," D agreed, staring thoughtfully at the wall.

"We're the biggest creatures here," Niccals said.

"Probably," 2-D repeated more quietly, turning on his side.

Murdoc scratched his forehead and, brushing off his bangs, lay down on the pillow more comfortably.