The clinks of bottles and gentle gurgle of running water would be relaxing had it not been for the various cries and honks from the many animals dangling above the dish-like base. You stare up at them in strange fondness, pondering how he managed to sleep at night when not tucked in your arms. Squinting your eyes (many...many eyes) you scour for your golden-haired lover, trotting around the odd structure. He had called you here for some unknown reason- you had been off world recently so you secretly hoped for a relaxing, cuddly evening. The odds of which was low knowing your lover.

Turning around a bend, you peer down the long hallway lined in shiny golden trophies.

"Zed?!" You call, fangs clicking gently in thought. Did he want to come and find him or something?

"Ah! Over here!!" His voice calls from a different tunnel, and you turn to skitter in his direction.

"This place is somehow a maze!" You huff, finally seeing his familiar form.

Seemingly ignoring your dismay he throws himself towards you- not fearing being dropped due to your extra limbs. Catching him effortlessly you indulge, nuzzling into his hair and flicking sheep ears. He smells as you remember- like sunshine and grass. A satisfied hiss pulls from your lips. You truly needed and evening just holding him in your arms.

"Hi darling." Zedaph sighs, head resting on your shoulder, arms looped under one pair of your own. He's warm pressed against you, soft cardigan brushing the skin on your arms and letting your palms sink into it. His hair is curly and bouncy, catching the light and nearly reflecting it into your eyes. Soft, precious, and just as wonderful as you remember.

"Hi lovely." You respond, smile tugging your lips. You bask in each other for a long moment, before Zed seems to realize something.

"Ah-" He leans back, and you scramble to not let him fall on his ass. "I forgot! I have something to show you." Zed's eyes glitter with that familiar mischief, and earnest excitement to show me his creations. His tail wiggles, matching the curling grin. You cant help the twinge of worry- his creations had a tendency to be...explosive.

"Should I be worried?" You raise an eyebrow. His grin only sharpens. Ah, definitely then.

"It's just over here-" He shifts and you plop him to the ground, snatching your hand he guides you a little further down to an inconspicuous cubby with a bed inside. His palms are soft, with small odd scars from freak accidents, he squeezes one of your hands suddenly buzzing with energy. Thinking something less pg- you raise another eyebrow, heat crawling to your cheeks. Noticing your suspicion he giggles. "Well I wouldn't jump to conclusions." Zed releases you and steps onto the bed. "Prepare- To be amazed." He waggles his fingers as if performing magic- before stepping into a piece of tripwire- and plunging downward. Your heart leaps into your throat-

'Zedaph Withered away.' The chat pings. You almost reach forward to grab him when respawns on another tripwire and plunges into the depths- abruptly you realize he was trying to die.

'Zedaph was squished too much.' Pinged the next, you chuckled letting some tension from your shoulders- squished???

You saw him for just a moment before-

You could guess this one from the loud pop- 'Zedaph went off with a bang.'

'Zedaph was killed by magic.' Declared the next hole.

'Zedaph went up in flames.' You winces sympathetically at the painful manor.

'Zedaph was shot by arrow.'

'Zedaph was impaled.' You stifled a giggle.

'Zedaph was pricked by a pufferfish.'

Finally the last block fell from beneath him.

'Zedaph was pricked to death.'

When he respawned you gave in, reaching forwards and snatching him into you arms. As impressive as the death loop was- it was never a fun experience.

"Zed!" You scolded, "That was probably the stupidest thing you've ever created." Holding him close, you feel his heartbeat slow from the adrenaline rush. He welcomes the cuddles in a boneless slump.

"You promise?" He manages with a giggle. You cant hold back a huff of fondness. He was the stupidest smart person you've ever met. Cradling him a little tighter your protective instincts calmed a tad.

"Yes, I do. Now let's go find somewhere to cuddle thats not the death bed- alright?"

"Mmm fiiinnneee." Zed relented, leaning back to stare lovingly at you. Purple eyes hooded in tiredness and fondness. Pressing a small kiss to his button nose you not so subtly trotted from the death loopificator. "You missed." He declares smugly.

"Oh did I? My apologies." Before he can gloat at the win you lean in to steal his breath. His lips are soft and plush, so easy and tempting to sink your fangs in and claim. But this kiss was sweet- pouring in the love you two bottled up in the small time apart. You dont want to pull away- missing his touch as soon you lean back.

"I love you." He sighs, so absentmindedly it clenches your heart. His eyes flutter open, simply watching you watch him.

"I love you too." You promise, leaning to steal another sweet kiss.

You shuffle him to one side, using an extra arm to fish a bed from your inventory and plop it down. You don't even let go- crawling forwards and placing the two of you onto the sheets. You pepper his face gently with kisses. "No more death loops- okay love?"

He groans as if it was an impossible feat.

"No more death loops- this season?" He offers, puppy dog eyes glittering in hope- and guilt tripping. You sigh, pretending to think about it before chuckling.

"Fiiinnneee." You agree, in much the same tone he had you.

"Thank you lovely". He plunges back into your neck, resting against you delicately.

You cant help the rumble of appreciation that flows through you. Such a lovely, soft person trusting you wholeheartedly. Few others dared got as close- spiders weren't exactly the most popular creatures.

Ever since you learned of Zed’s plan for the season, you claimed the role as his assistant. Not that there was much competition, as your husband wouldn’t have even considered asking anyone else.

When he decided to start experiments on his fellow hermits, you were happy to help with the proceedings. You set up the test chamber and helped to come up with the various parts to the examination, right beside Zedaph the entire time. When he (inevitably) asked you to be one of the subjects, you were more than happy to oblige. You didn’t expect your results to be anything unusual, especially with how arbitrary the tests were designed to be.

How wrong you were.

It started out the same as any other experiment, and you dropped into the testing chamber without ceremony. Soon, Zed’s voice came through the speaker system you’d helped to set up.

The first test was nothing simple item association, and you came up with suitably reasonable items, certainly nowhere near the strangest of answers. 

The first unusual thing happened when Zed asked you to create an automatic system. With the materials provided, you figured it would be simple to make an automatic bamboo farm, much like those of previous subjects. Once the structure was completed, you began to lay out the redstone dust. Somehow, though, an observer was not in the provided items, despite you being pretty sure that it had been there for the other experimentees. 

“Well, this kind of throws off the plan.” With a slight grumble, you began to painstakingly pull up the strips of redstone dust. Without a power source, you couldn’t even set up a simple loop. 

As you thought power source, something twitched in your fingers. Instinctively, you jerked back from the wiring in time to see a red glow emerge from your hands. The wiring began to spark, and you only watched in shock as the circuit whirred to life under your fingertips. 

Turning to your husband, he looked just as stunned by this development as you were. After a moment, he began scribbling at his clipboard, adjusting the microphone by his mouth before speaking over the intercoms again. “Fascinating! I take it from your reaction that this hasn’t happened before?”

You shot him a small glare, even you couldn’t help but smile at him. “Zed, you know this hasn’t happened, just as well as I do. You’ve been there every time I’ve done redstone. That’s your specialty, not mine.”

Despite that… unusual event, the rest of the tests seemed normal. At least, until Zedaph asked you to make as much noise as possible using only the items in the chamber with you. 

Immediately, you were drawn to the minecart. You’d heard enough people complain about how loud they could get. If only you could get it moving quickly… Kneeling down, you rearranged the track to make a loop rather than a squiggle, then looked around at the other objects. What could you use to power the minecart so it would move on its own?

Again, you felt a trembling in your fingers. Glancing back towards the iron cart, the red glow was back. Sparks flew from your hands to the cart, shooting down into the wheels and the track, and jolting the minecart forward. 

The minecart shot forward at a speed that made you jump back with a yelp. It was certainly loud, and a screeching came from the wheels, which were skidding along the tracks at a speed that was just a bit too fast. 

Clapping your hands to your ears, you stepped back. A pressurised hiss came from somewhere to the side, and you turned to see Zed moving quickly towards you, the glass wall that had been separating you still sliding to the side. Stepping toward the device you’d created, he took his pickaxe and broke a piece of the track, stopping the cart just as swiftly as it started. 

He turned towards you, and the half-panicked look on his face melted into something of reassurance. “Are you alright, darling? You’re shaking.”

You looked down at yourself. He was right. “I hadn’t even realised!” Smiling gently at you, your husband spread out his arms. You practically melted into his grasp, wrapping your own arms around him. “I was not expecting these results when I agreed to be one of your test subjects.”

———

“Are you sure about this?”

Y/n couldn’t help the tremor in their voice as they spoke their worry aloud, having to project much more than they were used to. The wind whipping around them drowned out all other sounds, their voice just barely able to be carried over to Zedaph’s ears.

He smiled at them reassuringly, patting their shoulder with a little too much force. Enough that Y/n wobbled in place, gasping suddenly at the unsteadiness, fearful that they’d tumble down prematurely.

Zed gripped their shoulder to hold them still, beaming apologetically.

“Sorry! Yes I’m sure! It’s perfectly safe!” He shouted back at them, blond hair brushing in front of his eyes. He made a move to push it out of the way, but was ultimately unsuccessful, as it was too short to tuck behind his ears, and the wind was persistent.

Y/n gulped, only feeling slightly better with his confirmation of safety. Zed didn’t exactly have a history of experiments going well.

Taking a hesitant look toward the ground, Y/n’s heart fell even further to the bottom of their stomach, something they weren’t even sure was possible a few seconds ago.

Absentmindedly, they found Zedaph’s hand, the one on their shoulder. Y/n looped their fingers though his, pulling it down so they they hung at waist level, but didn’t let go. They gripped tightly, feeling his pulse through the pressure. Y/n counted each of Zed’s heartbeats, grounding themself with an organic metronome.

Zedaph squeezed back reassuringly, looking down at the ground himself. His reaction was opposite, feeling more and more excited to jump down. He glanced at the person next to him. His partner, he noticed, looked about ready to throw up.

“Hey.” He shouted in attempt to get their attention.

Y/n looked his direction worriedly. Zedaph felt bad for a moment for begging them to do this with him. In all fairness, he didn’t realize they’d be this freaked out.

“I’ve got you okay? Are you ready?”

Y/n kept their eyes on Zedaph, unwilling to look back down at the ground below. Before they could change their mind, they nodded their head and shouted an affirmative “yeah!”

Zedaph didn’t hesitate, taking one step off of the ledge, hand in Y/n’s, dragging them with. As soon at solid ground was no longer under their feet, Y/n shut their eyes, still clinging to Zed’s hand like they’d perish if they let go.

They heard Zedaph scream, not of fear but of pure adrenaline. His hold on their hand tightened, their bodies coming closer together in the free fall. Y/n turned their head toward him, figuring if the both of them were going to die together, they were at least gonna get a hug out of it.

Zed picked up on the memo, bringing them in even closer with their interlocked hands. In his other, he held a remote.

The scientist prepared himself as the ground drew closer, hoping that the redstone he’d set up hadn’t decided to mysteriously stop working. He’d spent days on the project, meticulously setting up repeaters and timing sections to get everything just right. He’d need the water to fill up the bottom just before they hit bedrock if this was going to work.

Seconds before certain demise, Zedaph pressed a big red button on the remote, bracing himself for impact.

There was a loud splash as the both of them were plunged into water. Y/n’s eyes opened on impulse, finding themselves in a small pool that hadn’t existed when they’d first stepped off the ledge. Under the water, Zedaph was already staring back at them, his violet eyes huge with excitement and fist pumped in the air. A geiser of bubbles left his mouth as he shouted his celebrations into the pool. Y/n couldn’t help but shout back at him, their own voice muffled by the waves that had been formed upon their plunge.

Seconds later, they found themself gasping for air above surface, almost able to stand with how shallow the pool was.

“That was amazing!” They heard Zed yell, the man himself making his way towards them to share his joy.

Y/n squealed when they felt hands at their waist, suddenly finding themself lifted halfway out of the water by their overly-excited boyfriend.

“Incredible! From the top of the world to the bottom! I told you we could do it!” He exclaimed, walking the both of them over to a ledge a block up where it was dry. Zed sat Y/n on edge, remaining in the water to stare up at them.

“You did it Zed! You just dragged me along with you!” Y/n teased, drawing him in for a well-deserved celebratory kiss. Zedaph reached soggy hands up to hold their face. Dropping the remote onto the floor next to them.