#mobsqueaks

You woke up hot.

That was your only thought as you crawled your way out of your dreams, groaning at the overbearing heat encasing you and trying to blindly wrestle out of your sheets. It took a snort against your hair for you to realize you had no sheets, or bed for that matter. A piglin had offered himself as your bed beneath you, flat on his back and still lightly snoring as you pushed yourself up, catching the attention of one of the piglins at your side. Tusk, you remembered distantly, used his arm around your waist to pull you into his chest, soft snout snuffling over your cheeks and forehead… checking for something? Cleaning you? Whatever he was trying to do, the skin contact with the hot-blooded man was simply too much and you gently pushed him off of you.

“It’s too hot,” you weakly mumbled to try and ease his look of heartbreak, still trying to wake up. “I’m burning up.” It occurred to you that they still didn’t speak your language as he simply tilted his head at you, so you made a show of fanning yourself with your hands. “Too hot.” You jumped as another snout pressed between your shoulder blades, snuffling across them as his tongue rolled out to lick across your salty skin. You could feel the light sting as he found the various bites they left on you last night, lapping across them methodically. “No, it’s too hot,” you huffed, trying to get them to understand as you pushed Bow away, too. He startled you with a growl, pushing past your hand to continue licking your wounds. “Alright, noted, you keep doing that, then.”

Tusk chirped and grunted over your head, Bow tossing a few lazy grunts back as he cleaned the small scrapes and punctures they’d given you, leaving you awkwardly sitting there, feeling a bit like a kitten getting its bath. Bow finally seemed to deem his job done, laying his head on your shoulder to continue talking with Tusk, occasionally turning his head to nuzzle your cheek. “Uh, well, guys, I really think I should be going…” They blinked at you, ears perking as they seemed to try to decipher your language. “Uh, I- me,” you said, pointing to yourself, “go home,” you finished, pointing out the doorway. Boy, you hoped you could find your way out of the bastion…

Tusk chirped, wrapping his arms around your waist again and standing up with you. “Whoa- alright, buddy-” He adjusted his hold on you to carry you bridal style, happily snorting against your hair as he carried you off, walking like a man on a mission. “Okay, we’re moving- you know I can walk on my own.” Bow snorted as if laughing behind you as Tusk took you out of the room, navigating the dark halls of the bastion with purpose. You tried to keep track of what turns he took just in case you had to make it back yourself, but everything was built from the same dark stone that blended together like an optical illusion, hiding the halls until you were right up on them.

You finally came out into a large room with a fire pit in the middle, several piglins attending to the large hoglin on the spit. You were suddenly very aware of the fact that you were still naked as a few of them perked up at your entrance, but you were even more aware of the rumbling of your stomach as the savory smell of the roasting hoglin reached your nose. Tusk spoke briefly to the apparent cooks until one of them placed a large black cauldron over the fire, stirring the stew inside as they waited for it to warm. Tusk took a seat, setting you on one thick thigh and entertaining himself with your hair. “Uh, Tusk, can-” you mentally scolded yourself for forgetting again that they didn’t speak your language- they weren’t even your species but they were just so… caring. Everything your lovers had done for you had the same amount of thoughtfulness behind it as a human partner- you could even argue more. “Clothes,” you muttered distractedly, tugging at his loincloth and motioning towards your bare body. “I need my clothes.”

You thought you’d finally made some progress as he grunted over your head to a piglin behind you, then he was dressing you like a doll in your very own leather tunic to match theirs. “Kind of- okay, that works,” you decided as another piglin stepped forward, offering you a wooden bowl of steaming hot stew. “Oh- thank you.” Tusk chirped against your hair happily, deeming your needs met. All the piglins cast you curious looks as you ate, but being on Tusk’s lap seemed to grant you a sort of immunity from being chased out of the bastion like in the books you read. You’d even go so far as to say they were treating you like you belonged there…

The stew was surprisingly delicious, different mushrooms and what you presumed to be hoglin meat together in a savory broth. The hot food was strangely pleasant even in the heat of the Nether, and you scraped your bowl clean before leaning into Tusk’s embrace. He seemed thrilled that you’d eaten so much, nuzzling his soft snout against your cheek as he took the dishes from you. “Yeah, it was good, but I need to go,” you muttered, not really meaning your words as he brought a clawed hand up to rub your tummy. Did you really have to go? It felt like something you were just supposed to say, like ‘how are you’ or ‘it was nice to see you again’. You had a farm back home, and a fishing hut, and an enchantment table… but you built all that. You built it from scratch once, surely you could do it again. Maybe this was a temporary thing, maybe piglins only mated with a single partner for a week, or maybe your dna wasn’t compatible and once they realized you couldn’t give them children they’d run you out, but right now…

Right now Tusk was holding you snug to his chest, entranced with the feeling of your soft hair against his cheek as Scar and Bow entered the room and came straight for you, crowding around Tusk to get some skin ship without outright stealing you.