It hadn't been much of a surprise when Bellatrix wasn't where she said she'd be. Though Rodolphus expected her to follow through on her word, she could also easily be the type to disobey and only listen to herself. Given her age (practically a child far from being the wife he was accustomed to), it made sense. There were so many things she didn't know. Years she hadn't lived. With just a few words he could ruin it all, her whole wide open future that suddenly wasn't open at all. And, he supposed, neither was his. Others could ruin it for him just the same. If the situation had been reversed, with an older woman as his future, he might've left too. He wasn't too keen on being the one in the dark, however.
Alright, Bella, we'll play. Rodolphus left not long after arriving and went back to the pub to tell Rabastan she'd run off like a scared, little rabbit. They shared a laugh at that and continued the night. The days passed where they tried to figure out what to do; Rod quickly turned to hunting, the way they had as kids, using the environment to his advantage. It ate up plenty of time and provided some food as well as entertainment. Then he did his best to make a suitable living situation, not that they had much to work with. His treehouse felt more like a shack and the town was falling apart more than it looked to be running.
He started to complain at times but then remembered the alternative and shut the fuck up. The island may've been bad but it was no Azkaban.
Eventually his annoyance began to grow and grow. Not only at the general state of things and his life, but also with the silent Bellatrix who hadn't made a peep or shown her face anywhere. She couldn't hide forever - he knew that, seeing as how there was nowhere to go either - yet he also knew her perseverance and stubbornness to outlast most. While he'd searched for any life when he went hunting, he'd never explicitly gone to look for her, and he hadn't seen anything to motivate him to anyway. That is, until he got frustrated enough to need to win. He no longer wanted her to come out of hiding, he wanted to drag her out. It wasn't easy and he didn't think he'd found anything amongst all the other rubbish after a couple hours of searching so he gave up to hunt instead. That's when he saw her: a petite, black-haired figure walking toward him in the distance.
Once he was certain it was the Black in question, Rodolphus grinned and gave a whistle. Wonderful. Not exactly what he'd hoped for but it still gave him some surprise. Hiding himself wasn't the best option so he went for simply leaning against a large tree to wait, almost motionless.
"Finally crawl out of your hole?" He asked just a few seconds later when he didn't have to raise his voice for her to hear him.