#master fic

Xephos was holding his torch in a vice grip.

“You might want to put that out,” Lalna mentioned as he walked back over.

Xephos turned to him and stared like he had just asked him to kiss one of the sheep upstairs. “You’re mad,” he said bluntly.

Lalna idly scratched the stubble on his cheek. “Well, there’s probably a limited supply of oxygen in here, and the torch is gonna burn it up-“

He trailed off as he realized this was evidently the incorrect thing to say as Xephos’ face drained of color.

“Oh, gods,” Xephos moaned, wrapping his arms around himself.

Lalna scrambled to correct himself, reaching out for the other’s arm. “I mean- I could be wrong! There might be a source of air leaking through here somewhere- there’s probably plenty of air…” he trailed off weakly, sounding unsure and very much unhelpful.

“Honeydew will find us soon,” Lalna concluded, feeling like an absolute failure of a comforter. His companion didn’t reply, his eyes having obtained a glassy look to them.

Xephos slid down the stone wall, placing the torch beside him, his body having gone very taut except for subtle trembling. His jaw was visibly tightened, with his lips pressed into an almost invisible line. Lalna recognized his expression, Xephos always looked like this when he was trying very hard to hold back a breakdown. 

Lalna carefully sat down next to him. Keeping his movements purposefully slow and obvious, he wrapped an arm around the smaller man and pulled him closer. 

Xephos’ breathing picked up, closing in on almost hyperventilation.

“Shh,” Lalna attempted to soothe. “Don’t do that. It’ll use up more air.” He might not be good at comforting, but if there was a language he did speak, it was logic. 

Xephos nodded and inhaled. “Right.” He said, his voice strained. His breath was still quickened and uneven. 

“Just… follow me, yeah?” Lalna said, dropping his voice to a near whisper. Xephos swallowed, nodding silently again. Lalna focused on keeping his own breath steady, shifting an inch closer so their shoulders were touching. He absentmindedly began stroking his thumb back and forth over Xephos’ shoulder.

Xephos stared at the large plant. “Lalna. Why is there a tree in your living room?” He asked in as level of a tone he could manage.

Lalna glanced up at him from his spot on the ground with his familiar lopsided grin. “It’s Wintertide!”

“I’m sorry?”

“You know, the holiday?”

Xephos stared at him blankly. “Er, no? Should I?”

Lalna tilted his head. “Uh, I guess maybe not. Thought you would’ve been through one by now. D’you not celebrate it with him, ‘Dew?” Lalna looked over to the dwarf for confirmation, who frowned as he was torn away from his project.

“I mean, we must’ve-“ Honeydew stopped and scratched his beard in thought. “Well, I guess you wouldn’t know. You had just missed it when you arrived that first year, and last year we were… otherwise occupied,” Honeydew cleared his throat awkwardly. “But, this means it’s your first official Wintertide! That’s cause to celebrate!” 

Xephos frowned, still feeling confused. Annual holidays were very common across galactic cultures, but that in itself didn’t mean anything to someone trying to figure one out. Cultures differed so vastly between planets there really was no point for one to try and draw their own conclusions. The familiar itch of needing to know as much about Minecraftia was beginning to kick up in his brain. 

“But, what… is it?” Xephos pressed.

“Well, it’s supposed to be a celebration of the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. But, nowadays most people just use it as an excuse to skive off work and get drunk,” Lalna explained with a snicker. He had gotten up from his place on the floor and was now beginning to unload one of the many boxes that lay strewn across the sitting room. It was full of glittery orbs about the size of an apple.

Honeydew huffed and crossed his arms, glowering at the human. “It’s more than that. You give each other presents, you eat good food, you spend time with the people you love- it’s brilliant,” he explained with a wide grin. Lalna rolled his eyes at Honeydew’s cheesy speech.

Xephos looked back at the tree slowly. “I still don’t understand what this has to do with cutting down trees and putting them in your house.”

“You decorate them. ‘Dunno why, I think historically it was something to do with scaring off ‘evil spirits,’” Lalna undulated his voice and wiggled his fingers dramatically. Xephos’ lips quirked with a shy smile at his shenanigans. Even despite their short time being back, he was quickly being reminded of why he had missed Lalna so much during his and Honeydew’s quest. He was weird, but delightfully so. He was similar to Honeydew in that regard, the oddness, but they were also distinctly different in many other ways.

“But, people nowadays just decorate them ‘cos it’s pretty,” Lalna finished with a shrug.

“Decorate with what? This… stuff?” Xephos peered curiously into one of the boxes Lalna was plundering through. Tissue paper seemed to be wrapped around everything, obscuring the more delicate objects it protected. He hesitated to touch anything, unsure what the correct procedure was here.

Honeydew counted idly on his fingers. “Tinsel, baubles, popcorn and cranberry strings,” he gestured to the project resting in his lap, “Lights, candles. Any shiny gubbins, really.”

At the mention of candles, Xephos raised an eyebrow at the very wooden tree. “I feel like that could be a fire hazard of some kind,” he said, his tone a bit wary. Memories of the Yogcave were still all too very fresh in his mind.

Honeydew rolled his eyes. “Oh, quit your moaning. C’mere, I’ll show you how to string the popcorn and cranberries.”

Xephos would proceed to stick his fingers about a dozen times before he decided to help Lalna instead. They placed the ornaments, as they were called, on the tree. Xephos mostly sat unwrapping them from the delicate tissue paper, curiously examining the pictures and designs until Lalna needed him to hand one to him. Lalna mentioned adding candles, but after seeing Xephos’ clearly anxious expression, they instead settled for strings of electrical lights.

(13 was stuff I've posted before so went to next possible choice ^^)

Xephos knew what snow was, he had heard of the phenomenon, of course. Most planets with some form of weather system did, unless they were too hot, or dry, or only had water underground, like his home planet did.

But while he had heard many people talk about it and even seen a few images in passing, he had never seen it in person.

Xephos watched as a flake landed on his outstretched hand. It was very cold for a moment before his body heat melted it away. He had never thought about the fact that it would be cold, even though, of course, frozen water would be cold. The water dribbled down his hand and was absorbed by his sleeve.

His agape expression must have given his surprise away, because Honeydew chuckled at him. 

“First snow, eh? I remember mine, too,” he grinned toothily.

The mystified feelings began to fade, now overtaken by the sharp, bitter cold. Xephos shivered, uniforms like the one he wore now were made for the perfectly climate controlled interior of a spaceship, not for below zero temperatures.

why is that so huge hello. i hope its still huge on your end

(57 was Divine Corruption/Inside the Outsider so I skipped to next nearest which is 63)

“Where’d you learn to give first aid to humans?” Lalna asked.

Xephos paused what he was doing. “What?”

Lalna gestured to the antiseptic in his hand. “You knew all the stuff to use. You’re not human, so I figured someone had to teach you at some point.”

Xephos’ expression shifted to one of confusion. He stared at the bottle in his hands anxiously. 

“I don’t… I didn’t really think about it…” he mumbled mostly to himself.

Lalna snorted. “Gee, that’s reassuring,” he said sarcastically. Xephos didn’t reply, having gotten a faraway look in his eyes. Lalna cleared his throat to pull him back from wherever his mind had gone.

“Well, you used all the right stuff, so it doesn’t really matter in the end, anyways,” Lalna said with a shrug, in hopes to move the conversation away from his previous comment. Xephos had a tendency to sometimes just do things without really realizing he was doing them. And then, when it was pointed out to him, all it seemed to do was freak him out. Lalna wasn’t a huge fan of seeing his friend upset, and as such had been making mental notes of things not to mention when they were together.

“Honeydew?” Xephos whispered unsurely. 

The figure shook his head gently. “Nay, notta that. Deep breaths, lad, yer alright,” the deep, husky voice of a dwarf answered him. As he got closer, Xephos could better see the details of the dwarf: an older man, with a tanned, wrinkled face framed by intricately-plaited dark brown hair.

“Who- where…” Xephos asked and started to sit up, his face involuntarily screwing up in discomfort as a sharp pain spiked through his temple with the movement. A gentle hand pushed him back down onto the cot before he could even think about resisting.

“Ca’m down wee one,” the dwarf soothed and dabbed his forehead with a cool cloth, “Yer safe now.”

Xephos shook his head. “No… my friends, they’re still there, they could be hurt, I need to-“ he began speaking in gasping breaths as his anxiety increased, stumbling over his sentences as he struggled to find the right words to explain the situation. Frustration was building within him by the moment; why couldn’t he just think?

The dwarf furrowed his brow. “Ye were travellin’ with a party down thare?”

Xephos exhaled and nodded, relieved his point had gotten across. “Yes, I need to- I need to find them, they could be hurt-“ his voice continued to rise with panic. He tried to sit up again and was swiftly pushed down.

The dwarf interrupted him with another shushing noise and patted his shoulder. “Yer not going anywhere lad, we’ll send out folks to find your friends, don’t worry,” he said in a way Xephos assumed was meant to sound reassuring.

A noise of frustration escaped his throat and he squirmed haplessly under the dwarf’s sturdy hand holding him down.

“No- please, I need-“ he pleaded, but the dwarf didn’t seem to hear him, only looking at him with concerned eyes. He sighed and placed his free hand on Xephos’ forehead.

“Wort, ‘is fever’s spikin’, I need’ya to grab the scents,” the dwarf called over his shoulder to someone Xephos couldn’t see. Another voice responded and a disembodied arm handed something to the dwarf tending him. 

Xephos vaguely recognized a glass vial in his hand, and for a moment he thought he was going to be fed a potion, but the dwarf only rested it beneath his nose. Xephos inhaled involuntarily and a strong floral scent made him twist his head away, but the effect of whatever was in the vial was already taking over. A thick fog of sleep overcame him and his body drooped under invisible weights. Within moments, as his eyes fell closed despite himself, he was unconscious once more.

(82 was of my fic Violet Hills so I skipped to the nearest page with unseen content, 86)

Xephos’ breath hitched with fear and anger as Lalna crumpled to the floor with a groan. He could barely see a small spot of blood staining his blonde hair where his head had hit the wall. His hands trembled as an anger overtook him.

“You don’t fucking touch him,” Xephos seethed, pulling out his sword and swiftly putting himself between Lalna and Ridgedog. 

Ridgedog’s eyes flashed with interest. “Such bold words for someone in your position,” he purred with an underlying sneer.

Xephos growled and swung his sword at the god, who merely laughed and pinched the blade in between his pointer finger and thumb, halting the blow with zero effort.

“Sloppy,” Ridgedog commented boredly, ripping the blade from Xephos’ hands and tossing it aside. 

Xephos gasped in shock as suddenly a fist was around his throat and his feet were dangling. Ridgedog slammed him into the adjacent wall and his head spun from the impact. He squirmed and clawed at the hand slowly crushing his trachea as he found himself unable to breathe.

13:

Honeydew was beginning to realize that Xephos was rather… fragile.

He wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, that perhaps his alien ancestry had endowed him with some sort of special abilities or powers. But, this was quickly proving to not be the case.

His skin broke easily, like a human or an elf’s. Nothing like the tough, thick hide of a dwarf. Honeydew had lost count of the number of times he’d been required to mend the man’s uniform while the other wrapped up blue wounds in gauze. Even a steak knife was cause for an accidental cut.

And, gods, he fell ill so often. Every town they went, Xephos would leave with a sniffle, or a cough, or a fever. Luckily, he seemed to recover from the sicknesses quickly, or so Honeydew liked to think. Perhaps he was just very good at disguising his symptoms. 

And, no matter how much Honeydew tried to get him to eat, the weight would just not stay on him. It made his stomach turn whenever he saw the other shirtless, being able to count nearly every rib. He shivered every night despite the multiple quilts Honeydew packed, seemingly unable to retain any of his own body heat.

This level of care for someone caused Honeydew pause. The last time he’d gotten this attached and protective of a stranger, he’d ended up basically a third proxy-parent of Lalna during his childhood- and even now into his adulthood. 

But, that was what Xephos was like, a very delicate child. A child he couldn’t bear to see hurt.

69:

“That yer mate?”

Lalna looked up to see a burly dwarf holding a mug of mead. His beard was a mousy blonde with golden beads interwoven between the strands that glittered brightly in the dim firelight. He was looking past Lalna at Xephos who was slumped over on the table, his forehead pressed against the wood beneath. How his back tolerated that curve Lalna had no idea. He had placed his lab coat over the man’s head to try to shield him from the light as he dozed.

Lalna cracked a small grin. “Ah, yeah. He’s not one for beer. Or parties. No clue how he’s sleeping through this.”

The dwarf nodded and took a swig of his drink. “I’m not surprised.”

Lalna raised an eyebrow in a silent question. The dwarf continued: “He’s a soldier. Ye learn to sleep whenever and wherever ye can.”

That gave Lalna pause. He often forgot that Xephos was by some folks’ standards ‘a soldier,’ having served with the Skylords. If only they knew about his ‘Spaceman Officer’ past, they’d have a field day.

Lalna nodded and glanced back. “I guess you’re right.”

“Yer very kind to stay with him.”

“Well, yeah. I wouldn’t just let him sulk off alone. He’d get all whiny about it.” Lalna joked.

The dwarf’s eyes twinkled and he nudged Lalna’s side. “‘Cos he’s yer mate,” he said with a teasing tone.

Lalna laughed awkwardly at the tone. “Well, sure, he’s my friend.”

The dwarf laughed. “Ah, right. ‘Friends.’” He said, making quotation marks with his fingers.

Lalna stared in confusion and took a sip of his drink. The dwarf paused awkwardly.

“Well, ye are partners, are ye?”

Lalna nearly spit out his sip of mead. Heat rose to his face. “What? No!”

The dwarf flushed in embarrassment. “Wait, what? Oh, gods, I’m sorry!” He rubbed the back of his neck abashed. “I just figured cos the way ye… nevermind. My apologies.”

Lalna swallowed. “You’re fine,” he said, his voice slightly strangled.

The dwarf smiled and patted his shoulder. “Good lad. I better get back. Good luck.” He winked and walked away.

Lalna stared at the space ahead as the conversation replayed in his head. What the hell did the dwarf mean by all that?

Xephos chose that moment to stir as he poked his head out from beneath the lab coat. His hair was disheveled and his eyes squinty with sleep. “What was that about?”